Brand New World Redux
by NobleMETA
Summary: For Ruby, college was just another step along her path in life. Never did she expect it to bring about more than just a simple education. AU story where Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang and the rest of the gang attend Signal University. Drama all around as each of them tries to get by and become successful in life's many paths. Rewrite to the original Brand New World!
1. Start of Something New

**AN: Well, this wasn't something I expect people thought would happen. But there's a reason for this. Recently I took part in Extra Life, and as one of the stretch goals I went with for our stream (that being with the rest of the Legion), I would do some sort of writing project, and this is what I picked (I also went bald for that as well). I'll have more to say after the chapter about the story itself and what I plan to do with this, but for now, enjoy this new chapter!**

* * *

Ruby Rose awoke to the sounds of knocking against her bedroom door. She was having such a nice dream about consuming a mountain of cookies, when the infernal noise shattered the mirror of her mind. Soon after, the knocking was followed up by someone calling out to her.

"Ruby, it's time for you to get up. It's gonna be a long drive for you to get to Signal, hopefully you have enough time to get there and get settled before the evening sets in."

Rolling out of her bed, Ruby walked over to the door, her hair still in a mess. She looked up at the man who was at her door. "You can relax, Dad, I'm awake," Ruby grumbled.

"There's my beautiful daughter," Taiyang said to Ruby, pulling her into a hug. "I still can't believe that you and your sister leave for college today."

Still waking up, Ruby wrapped her arms around her father and returned the hug. "I need to shower."

"Alright," Tai replied. "Yang's moved most of her stuff over to the front porch."

"Are you sure we're gonna have enough room to fit Uncle Qrow in the backseat?" Ruby asked. "I know my car has a lot of room, but I don't wanna kill him."

"He'll be fine," Taiyang insisted. "You gotta remember that your Uncle has been in much worse positions than that. Besides, he'll probably be snoozing most of the trip anyway."

"Eh, you're probably right," Ruby replied as she walked over to the bathroom. "Oh, do you need me to feed and walk Zwei before I leave?"

"I already took care of it. You just go get ready for your trip."

"Alright, thanks, Dad," Ruby said before shutting the door to the bathroom and getting washed up.

* * *

After she finished washing up, Ruby started to bring her bags down to the front porch. Without saying a word, her and Yang began to load their belongings into her car, both of them beginning their adventures into the world together. The two sisters didn't know what to expect when they got to the school, and the only thing they knew, was that the two of them were going to be given roommates who neither of them knew.

"How come we can't just room together Yang? It would be easier on the two of us don't you think?" Ruby took a break to talk to her sister before they fully set off.

Yang put the box she was carrying down and lifter her aviators and rested them on top of her head. "You're bringing this up again? Ruby, you of all people need to get out of the shell you live in and meet new people. You already have over the summer and from what I could tell, it has already done you good."

Yang was of course, talking about a summer program Ruby took part in to get herself ahead of the game come time for the school year to begin. Though from what Ruby thought of it, the time wasn't worth it. "Yeah, I met one person. And from what I remember, Weiss, the Ice Queen, Schnee, didn't seem like the most friendliest of people."

Yang had walked up to the front of the driveway to get the mail for their dad. Going through it while Ruby was talking, she noticed that there was one letter addressed to Ruby herself. "Well maybe that will change when you read this. Notice the sender." Ruby looked confused for a second. She looked at the letter and was surprised who it was from.

Weiss Schnee

"Wait, what the heck is this. Maybe she meant for it to go to someone else, this can't be for me." Ruby was very skeptical, so she put the letter into one of her bags and went back into the house.

"Uncle Qrow?" Ruby called out.

"In the kitchen!"

Walking over to the kitchen, Ruby saw her Uncle Qrow talking with the two sister's father. "We're mostly packed up, you need to throw anything in?"

"Most of my stuff is at my apartment, just this small backpack is what I need," Qrow replied. "Besides, I'm sure I wouldn't have room with all of your stuff anyways, so I packed light for the occasion."

"Alright, we'll be leaving in a few minutes, I'll let Yang know to come in and say bye," Ruby said before retreating back outside.

After that, Ruby and Yang said goodbye to their father, and got into their car, with Ruby driving, and they pulled away to begin their college life. True to her father's word, Ruby looked back and saw that Qrow was trying to get some sleep.

They had a long 5 hour drive ahead of them, and the heat was not friendly to them. In Ruby's crimson red Nissan Juke, they managed to keep the inside of the car cool enough so they didn't die from the heat. "So, you excited to go to college? I bet there are going to be so many awesome parties to hit up."

Ruby rolled her eyes, even though they were starting college together, Yang was still two years older than her. Yang decided to start college a year late, and Ruby was moved ahead a year due in no small part to her advanced intelligence and practical skills. "Not really, and no I don't plan on doing any parties Yang. As is I won't know anybody there, aside from Jaune, Nora, and Ren. What if they don't want to hang out with me? You know how bad I am when it comes to meeting new people."

"And that is why I think it's a good thing for you to be rooming with someone new, so that you learn how to interact and meet with new people. This isn't just about your grades Ruby, it's about developing yourself into the person you are going to be." Ruby just groaned, she didn't want to meet new people. Ruby felt like she had enough problems already. "Also Ruby, Dad wanted to make sure that you had your medication, so he went to the drug store yesterday to get a 3 month supply. If you need anymore, he said to call him as soon as possible."

Ruby didn't like getting lectured by her sister. "Yeah yeah, I know." Yang decided that Ruby wasn't going to listen to her, and so she went to go put some music on.

"Can you put on some nice rock music?" Yang looked at Ruby, who was putting all of her attention into her driving, and smiled.

"I got just the thing for you Ruby." Suddenly Ruby started to hear one of her favorite tunes, My World by the band Sick Puppies. Ruby couldn't help but smile and start to rock out to the music.

* * *

For the most part, the drive went by pretty smoothly, after about 2 hours of driving, Ruby and Yang went to take a stop at a rest stop and pick up something to eat. When they got there, they saw their friend Jaune Arc. "Jaune!" Ruby saw their friend and jogged her way over to him. Jaune turned when he heard his name, and he was surprised to see his friend.

"Hey, Ruby, Yang. What a surprise to see you guys here." He said.

"I know right. Man I can't believe the whole gang is going to Signal University together. It's like we can't be separated huh."

Jaune couldn't help but laugh at that. "Who would have thought that huh, anyway I gotta keep going, my parents are waiting for me as it is. Don't worry though, I'll see you when you get there." Jaune started to walk away, and Ruby watched her friend go.

"I guess he finally got over it huh." Yang said to her sister after Jaune got into his parents car.

"Yeah I guess so. Though I doubt he wouldn't, I don't see how he could really be upset with me over that." Ruby said back to her. "Plus, with what happened, I'm glad that he helped me out when he really had no reason to do so.

"Well then again, it's not everyday that you find out your best friend happens to be a lezbo."

Ruby quickly turned her head to Yang, and she punched her arm. "What the hell Yang? Do you want people to stare at me?" Ruby and Yang started to walk to the convenient store in the vicinity, and got a few snacks for the rest of the trip.

"Relax Ruby, it's not like people really care. No one in this area knows us, and when we leave, we'll just be a simple memory to be forgotten by the day's end." Ruby knew her sister was right, but she didn't like the way that it was worded to begin with.

"Just remember that when we get to school, there will be people there who would be more than glad to stare at us ok? I don't want to get picked on right out the gate ok?" Ruby and Yang got back into their car, taking note that their Uncle Qrow was fully asleep in the back.

Before getting on the road, Ruby pulled out a small little device and held it in her hand. "Really? Do you seriously need that?" Yang questioned.

"Hey, you know exactly how much this has been of benefit to me quitting," Ruby stated. "It's better than me actually doing something worse. Besides, it's just vapor, no bad smells, no bad taste, none of the truly harmful stuff too. What's so wrong with that?"

"Yes, I'd rather you be vaping than actually smoking," Yang conceded. "But you know how much of a pain it was to get you off of smoking in the first place."

"Well, blame Penny for that," Ruby stated after taking a large puff of her vape.

"I told you, the next time I see her, it'll take all my strength to not deck her," Yang retorted as Ruby pulled out onto the road again.

* * *

About an hour into the rest of the trip Yang remembered the letter that Ruby got. "So I just remembered that you got a letter from Weiss earlier today. What did it say?"

Ruby sighed "I didn't actually read it yet. I figured that she sent it to the wrong person and so I don't know what to do with it."

Yang shook her head and held the bridge of her nose in her fingers. "Ruby, why do you assume that no one likes you? Believe it or not, you are a neat person who is easy to get along with, sometimes. Why do you always beat yourself up over stuff like this?"

Ruby didn't know how to answer that. "I...I don't know, maybe it's because people find me hard to deal with. If you haven't noticed I'm not exactly normal. While people go around wearing those nice sun dresses and skirts, I wear t-shirts, jeans and cargo pants. Not exactly a cultural norm Yang." Ruby wanted to just be there so she could just lay in her bed and not have to worry about anything anymore.

"Cultural norm or not… " Qrow stated after waking up from his nap. "...you know that you'll get along with whoever it is. And if not, well then you'll be able to switch roommates, should you two have really bad chemistry."

"Oh hey, you're awake," Yang commented.

"I take it we're here?"

"We still got about another 2 hours left to go," Ruby commented. "Should go by quickly though since it's still mostly highways."

"In that case," Qrow brought out a book and started to peruse it's words. With that, Ruby and Yang went back to watching the road.

* * *

After what felt like forever, Ruby and Yang had finally managed to get over to Signal. When they got there, they each went to their respective dorms, Yang being in one building, and Ruby in another. Qrow waited with Ruby, since he knew that Yang would have an easier time than the younger of the two sisters. After waiting in line for about 15 minutes, they managed to reach the front where Ruby would be told where to go to.

"Ok, Miss Rose, it looks like you will be on the third floor in room 326." The lady at the front desk gestured for her to come a bit closer, so that she could whisper into Ruby's ear. "If you ask me, you got a really great room, perfect view of the campus, everyone who has been there has been in love with it."

Ruby leaned back up. "Thanks, um would it be too much to ask who my roommate is going to be?" Ruby knew it was a long shot but she had to try.

"I'm sorry hunny, I can't do that right now. Gotta make sure that all of these people behind you get taken care of as well. Anyway, before you go, here is your parking pass. It's not a long walk to your building from the lot you are assigned, but long enough to get a good exercise in. You have a good day now."

"I can't believe that Yang isn't even going to be in the same building as me," Ruby said as she started to carry some of her bags up to the dorm.

"Relax kid, you know that her and I will be available if the need does arise," Qrow replied, carrying more of Ruby's bags with him. "Since you only need to make one more trip, I'm gonna help Yang after getting the rest of these up to your room."

"Sounds good," Ruby commented.

When Ruby finally started to bring stuff into her room, she already felt tired and wanted to take a nap. Walking up the stairs to her room took less effort than she thought, and when she made it to her room, she noticed that it was open and that someone was in there. Ruby sighed and slowly made her way into the room, only to notice that she did know her roommate already. Her roommate noticed Ruby came in and almost recognized her immediately.

"Ruby?"

Ruby stood still for a second in shock. She wasn't expecting to already know her roommate. "Weiss?"

* * *

 **AN: So, a lot of things different than the original, however things have stayed somewhat similar. I didn't want to change too much of the story, but I figured I would include some details that, for those who read the original, would help make sense for future events (or rather past events that will impact future parts of the story).**

 **Now, onto what I plan to do with this story. I plan on posting a new chapter for this once every other week. The next chapter won't be in two exact weeks (I wanted to post this one on the anniversary of the original story), it'll be posted a week from this friday, and the subsequent chapters will be every other friday after that!**

 **Lastly, for those who have read the original, I would love to see your thoughts on the changes from the original, and I ask that you try to not spoil too much of the story for those who didn't read the original. I'll try to keep things close to the original, only changing details when I feel that it's appropriate, but it should still be the same story as before.**

 **Thank you all very much for reading this, and I hope you all have a wonderful day!**


	2. Roommates

There was a bit of a long pause, as everyone stood there, silently waiting for someone to talk. Even Qrow, who walked up behind Ruby and looked into the room, could tell that something awkward was happening, so he stayed silent as well.

"Weiss my dear, do you know this woman?" Weiss' father asked, snapping Weiss out of her trance with his baritone voice.

"Oh, uh, yeah. We met during that Summer program I went to recently," Weiss replied.

Her father turned to Ruby, and he walked over and held out his hand. Ruby realizing she didn't have a hand to begin with, had to figure out how to carry the box that she was carrying with one hand while shaking the hand of Weiss' father. "One second," Ruby requested as she placed the box onto her desk in order to free up her hand. Once she did, she shook the offered hand without hesitation.

"It's good to meet you miss..." Since he didn't know Ruby's name he was waiting for her to respond.

"Rose. Ruby Rose." Ruby felt like she was going to go insane with what was going on. She didn't even notice the size of the room when she got in, which was surprisingly bigger than she thought.

"I take it this is your father then?" Weiss' father asked.

"Uncle," Qrow replied. "I live up in this area so I offered to help Rubes here and her sister get settled in." Qrow set the stuff he had onto the empty bed before turning to Ruby. "Speaking of whom, I need to go help her out with the rest of her stuff. I'll talk to you later kid."

"Seeya, Uncle Qrow!" Ruby replied.

"Well, if you don't need anything else hun, then we shall be on our way. We have an important meeting to be at and could only delay it so much." Weiss' father walked over to her and gave her a kiss on the forehead and an embracing hug, as did her mother.

"Have a safe trip," Weiss called as her parents went on their way. Ruby finally managed to put her remaining box of things down.

"So...we're roommates huh? Well that's uh..." Ruby didn't know how to respond to this. Weiss' silence didn't help her out either. "I uh, gotta go get some more things, I'll be back later." Ruby walked out of the room, leaving her new roommate to ponder what was happening. She was about to make her way down the stairs when she realized Weiss was following her instead.

"I can only assume you need help getting everything up here," Weiss said bluntly, slightly startling Ruby.

"You could say that. And could you possibly not try to scare the crap outta me with that? I want to actually survive this first day of college." Ruby still thought that Weiss didn't like her.

"What on earth makes you think that I would want to kill you?"

Ruby knew that this would happen. "Because you weren't exactly the nicest person to me over the summer. No offense to you, but I really just don't want to have any sorta problems with you."

Weiss looked confused for a second. "Wait, what are you talking about? I don't have any problems with you. You should know that." Weiss realized that the two of them had reached Ruby's car in the time that they were talking.

"What makes you think that?" Ruby opened the trunk of her car, and Weiss noticed the letter that she sent to Ruby was sticking out of a backpack. The white haired girl sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose before plucking the lister from its resting place and holding it in front of her facing Ruby.

"Because of this." Ruby just stood there speechless, not realizing that the letter actually was sent to her.

"Oh that, uh..."

Weiss shook her head. "You didn't even read it did you?"

Ruby started to pull the last of her stuff out of the car. "Hey, it only got delivered to my home today, and I saw that about 10 minutes before I started driving over here, and I was packing at the time. Plus I thought you sent it to the wrong person."

Weiss was surprised by the statement. "You really think I would let that happen? If you remembered the summer, I tended to triple check every single bit of documentation I have. So yes, it was supposed to go to you. Now hand me something to grab." Ruby did just that and the two of them managed to get the rest of Ruby's belongings into their room.

"Jeez, this is really cluttered right now. I suppose we should try to make things more roomy huh."

Weiss nodded. "I suppose you are right, but for now, I need to take a shower. Why don't you start unpacking your things? Oh, and actually read this. You might be surprised what you see." Weiss handed Ruby the letter, and then she grabbed a towel, and her shower products, and left the room. Ruby simply walked over to her bed and laid down.

"This is gonna be an interesting year."

Ruby decided, after a few minutes of internally debating, to finally read that letter that Weiss gave to her. She figured that since they were living together for the time being, that she might as well. Opening the letter, she noticed that it was written in a beautiful calligraphy that made Ruby feel impressed.

"Dear Ruby,

You probably don't remember me that much, but we went to the same summer program recently. I know it may have seemed like I didn't like you but the truth is, I think that you are a really nice person and I wish that I had gotten to know you better. That being said I figure that you should know that I have a hard time dealing with people and making new friends myself. But if you would be ok with it, I would like to try and start over with you. Seeing as how you tried to be my friend when no one else would, I would like to return that same kindness and courtesy and try to be friends with you.

If we ever see each other again, I hope that you and I could try again.

Sincerely,

Weiss Schnee."

"Wow, that wasn't what I thought would happen." Ruby didn't notice that Weiss had returned from her shower and was looking at her while she read the letter.

"Ruby?" Weiss' call made Ruby jump, and she slipped on the floor, falling flat onto her back. Weiss swiftly moved over to her, trying her best not to expose herself while wrapped in her towel. "You ok?" Weiss looked genuinely concerned for Ruby. Ruby sat up slowly, and she looked at Weiss.

"Didn't I say not to do that again?" Weiss looked at Ruby with a sad look on her face. Suddenly Ruby started to chuckle a bit. "Relax Weiss, I'm just joking around with you." Hearing that, Weiss was able to calm down. "But seriously though, if that is going to be a regular thing though, can you let me know so I can bubble wrap myself?" Weiss couldn't help but laugh at that.

Next thing they knew, Ruby's phone was going off, she was getting a call from her sister Yang. "Hey."

"Hey, Ruby, me and my roommate are going to get some dinner. You want to join us?"

Ruby thought about it for a moment, also thinking that she should bring Weiss with them. "Yeah sure, is it ok if my roommate joins us?"

Yang took a second to respond, which Ruby assumed was Yang asking if her roommate was fine with it. "Alright cool. You're driving by the way. We'll meet you by your dorm, text me when you are heading down." Yang abruptly hung up on her sister.

"What the..." Ruby took a deep breath, trying to keep herself from beating up Yang. Ruby looked at Weiss, who was listening in on the call, and saw that she was getting some things together to go out in.

"I'm assuming that I'm being dragged along for something?" Ruby nodded and Weiss finished getting some things together. "Alright then, but can you, ya know, give me a second to get changed?" Ruby quickly got out of the room and waited in the hallway for a few minutes. Before she knew it, Weiss had changed into a light blue shirt with a pair of white short-pants. "You didn't need to come out here you know. Turning around would have been fine."

Weiss was about to head out, but Ruby went back into the room really quickly. "I still need to grab a few things. Give me a second ok?" Ruby started to scour her belongings for her wallet. She finally found it and then she grabbed her phone and started to walk out of the building with Weiss. She sent the message to Yang saying that they were on their way down, and when they got there, they saw Yang and her roommate, who was in a white shirt with a purple vest over top of it, and a pair of short black shorts. The girl was clad with raven colored hair and she sported amber eyes. Ruby had to admit that she was impressed by her sisters roommate.

"Hey sis. This is my roommate, Blake. Blake, this is my sister, Ruby and her roommate, who's name I don't know yet." Blake seemed like a friendly person, but she seemed rather quiet and distant.

"Hey," She said to the two of them.

"Nice to meet you, Blake, uh Yang, Blake, this is my roommate, Weiss." Weiss gave a polite wave and a smile.

Yang thought for a second before making the connection. "Wait, is this the same Weiss who you went to the Program with?" Ruby nodded her head. "Oh, well that works out then, at least you two know each other." They all started to make their way to Ruby's car.

"So where exactly are we going?" Ruby wanted to know how long it would be.

"Well I decided that we're going to this club on the far side of the town."

Weiss and Blake looked at Yang like she was crazy. "Um, excuse me?" Weiss said. "I'm not going to some dirty stinking club." Blake nodded in agreement.

"Yeah I'm with Weiss on this one, and possibly Blake as well. Besides, I wouldn't be able to get in anyway, Yang."

Yang looked up and groaned. Weiss was confused by what Ruby meant but she decided to not make a scene by asking about that. "Fine, where do you want to go then?" Yang complained, she was really set on going out clubbing.

"I heard of this nice Chinese restaurant in the next town over. Doesn't seem to be that far away, and I can get the directions to it really quickly," Blake decided to chime in. Seeing as how no one else had any other ideas, they all agreed on that. Blake took a minute to look up the directions on her phone, then gave them to Ruby who in turn put them into her GPS. The four of them eventually got underway. Ruby and Yang were up front with Blake and Weiss in the back.

"You guys comfortable back there?" Ruby didn't want them to feel squished, but then she thought that if she could fit herself, her sister, Jaune, Nora, and Ren into her car, and have about 10 different bags with them at the same time, that the two of them would have enough room.

"There is plenty of room back here, Ruby, you don't need to worry about us," Weiss had said. So Ruby turned back forward, and went to put on some music before they left.

"You guys have any music preferences?" Ruby again didn't want to upset anyone on the first day. Blake simply shook her head, she didn't seem to be worried by the selection.

"I guess it doesn't matter, you're the one driving after all," Weiss said to Ruby.

Ruby took that as a good sign and so she decided to play some of her music. Weiss was kinda surprised by the choice, and didn't expect to be listening to heavy metal, though Ruby kept the volume down enough so that it didn't bother people, and so that people could chat with each other if they wanted. Ruby was the first to speak. "So, I'm guessing we should all get to know each other right? Um, does anyone want to say something about themselves?" Ruby started to feel like she was being awkward, which everyone else started to pick up on.

Yang decided to step in and get the ball rolling. "Ok, well obviously like said before, I'm Yang. I'm Ruby's older sister, and I am a freshman Personal Fitness major. I kinda want to be one of those Physical Therapist type people."

Weiss stepped in for a second. "So you are the same sister your Uncle was talking about? I guess you're full name is Yang Rose?" Yang was surprised by how observant Weiss was.

"Well, not exactly. Me and Ruby are only half sisters, but there are some some weird complications in our family regarding our births. So technically while she is Ruby Rose, I'm Yang Xiao Long."

Ruby noticed that their companions were seeming confused. "What she is trying to say is, we have the same dad, but different mothers." Weiss and Blake both made sense of it after that, humming in acknowledgement.

"Wait, so how come you are both freshman like us if you are older, Yang?" It was Blake's turn to ask questions.

"Well, I'm technically 19. I took a year off to get some money together. Ruby here however was moved up a grade so she is technically 17 now." Yang was certainly being personable with their guests. Ruby quickly looked in her mirror to see Weiss more and more about her roommate.

"Oh, well that must mean you are a pretty smart person, huh, Ruby." Ruby just smiled and rubbed the back of her head. Ruby noticed that they got to the restaurant, and then she turned into the parking lot.

"Looks like we're here," Ruby mentioned, thinking it would be best to wait until they were inside the restaurant before they kept going. Once they got their table and returned with food, they kept going with the conversation. "So, where were we?" Blake picked up on the hint Ruby was dropping and chimed in.

"Fine, I'm Blake Belladonna, a freshman professional writing major. Should speak for itself." Blake didn't seem to talk much, something Ruby noted to herself.

"Well, I'm Weiss Schnee, I am a freshman Business Major. What about you Ruby, you have been relatively quiet up till now." Weiss was right, Ruby stayed quiet and just listened to everyone else up until now.

"Well, you all know by now my name is Ruby Rose. Aside from that I'm just a freshman Psychology Major. I figured that I want to help people, and so that is the best way for me to do it I guess."

"That seems very admirable Ruby, but I don't think it's easy to get through all of that. If you think about it, you have a lot of stuff to learn for that subject matter, and the question is, can you handle it all?" Blake commented in between bites of her food.

Ruby shrugged. "Eh, I think I can handle it." Blake just laughed and smiled at Ruby. Blake couldn't help but feel like she made some new friends today, just like Weiss Yang and Ruby all felt as well.

Ruby couldn't help but smile, and she felt inclined to speak to everyone of her new friends there. Putting down her chopsticks for a moment, she spoke up once more before they continued to enjoy their dinner together. "Ya know, coming here, to a place where I knew no one, I'll admit it, I was a bit nervous at first. I figured that it would end badly for me. But I guess I was wrong about that. After meeting you guys, I guess things are looking good so far."

* * *

 **AN: So, have I told you guys how much I think you are really freaking awesome?**

 **Because you are.**

 **You are really, really awesome people!**

 **First off, I will be replying to reviews I already received, as well as any that come in for this chapter over the weekend. So expect replies to occur soon!**

 **Now, onto the good stuff.**

 **For those of you who have read this before, I'm glad to see how much you have enjoyed the improvement in quality compared to before. Granted going back and tweaking something that you started working on 4 years ago when you were first getting started, it's easy to make things better. There may be points where it seems like much from a chapter hasn't changed, but those moments will only be because I thought that changing them wouldn't do much to the story itself. As I work on this more and more (I already have a rough estimate of the first 10 chapters edited so far, and I'll be working on more the next few weekends when I have the time), I'll go and improve anything I can when I feel it's appropriate. So hopefully you guys keep enjoying this, because this was a really nice shot in the arm for me!**

 **Thank you all very much for your love and support of this story! Feel free to leave a review IF YOU WISH TO DO SO, and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!**

 ***TumbleZwei***


	3. The First Day

Over the course of the next few days, Ruby and Weiss went to organize their room to the way they wanted it to be. They ended up having bunk beds so that they could save some space in the room for their stuff. They situated their bed to be right nearby the window, and at night they would look out at the view before them and revel in its beauty. They were to start classes in the morning, so their minds were on that mostly, making sure that their first day wasn't a disaster. Without even realizing it, Ruby looked out the window. The rain was heavy, and it seemed like it wouldn't stop, but for some reason, Ruby managed to find the view to be the most beautiful thing she had ever seen before in her life.

"Whoa, that's amazing." Weiss turned to see what her roommate was looking at. When she saw Ruby staring out the window, she seemed to be confused. Ruby was an odd person so she would need to get used to her strange moments, but still this seemed to be weird even for her.

"What is?" Weiss went over to look out the window. "I don't see anything Ruby."

Ruby simply smiled. "I'm not looking at any one thing. I'm looking at it all. I don't know why but, it's very relaxing and peaceful." When Weiss took a second look out there, she saw what Ruby saw. Not a rainy evening, but a peaceful view of the campus. Weiss felt like she was looking at a piece of art, where the canvas was shining and shifting with each passing second. Weiss saw the true beauty in the scene before her, and she saw what she really wanted in herself.

"Wow, that is beautiful." Weiss couldn't help but look in amazement. Ruby turned to her and was surprised to see how enveloped Weiss was in the view. She looked like she had just seen a shooting star and was waiting for another one to appear.

"You seem to be enjoying the view huh Weiss?" Ruby called to her white haired friend.

"How could someone not enjoy this view?" Weiss did have a point, Ruby couldn't think of a single person who wouldn't like the view. Ruby simply chuckled to herself and turned away from the window.

After a while though, Weiss eventually fell asleep. Ruby took notice and turned off the lights in the room so as not to disturb her roommate's slumber. Then she ran over to the shower quickly, cleaned up and then went to sleep herself.

* * *

The morning came by quickly, and Ruby, who was easily awoken, got out of bed. Weiss was just waking up herself, and she yawned a bit. "Morning Ruby." Weiss grumbled, she didn't seem to be that much of a morning person.

"You look pleasant Weiss."

She grumbled some more and then stood up. "Ugh, I'm taking a shower." Weiss quickly checked the time to see how long she had, and then she grabbed her shower things and went over. Once Weiss had left the room, Ruby got into a clean t-shirt and blue jeans, and then made sure she had everything together. She was about to walk out of the room when she remembered something important, her medication. Ruby went over to her desk where she kept it at and took it out. As she was about to open the bottle, she heard the door open and Weiss walked back into the room, finished with her shower.

"Oh, uh, I'll be out of your way Weiss." Ruby didn't have time to get her meds before she rushed out of the room, not wanting to be around for Weiss changing. As soon as she got out of the room though, she looked up and sighed. "Well great, no meds today and it's the first day of classes. Ruby, you are off to a wonderful start."

* * *

Weiss still didn't understand why Ruby kept rushing out the door when she was about to get changed, or when she came back from the shower. Granted she was only wearing a towel at the moment, but she figured it wouldn't be an issue. Weiss quickly got into some clothes. After she put her shirt on, she was about to put on some shorts, but then she noticed that Ruby had left her drawer open at her desk. So she went to go close it for Ruby, but she noticed something that caught her attention. An orange pill bottle with a prescription for something Weiss couldn't recognize. Noticing that it was for Ruby, and that she needed to take it, she decided to bring it with her so that she could give it to Ruby for her to take. "I wonder what this is for anyway." Weiss quietly said to herself. She grabbed her school bag and went off to her first class. Ruby was in it with her so she would be able to get her the medication she needed right away.

Walking across campus was nice with the sun shining down on her. As she made her way to her first class, Weiss ran into Ruby's sister Yang. "Hey Yang." Weiss called up to the blonde.

"Oh, hey Weiss. What's up?" Yang was a bit surprised to see Weiss but she wasn't going to complain.

"Oh you know, off to classes and all that. Hey I did want to ask you a question though. Well more like two but you get the idea."

Yang seemed to be confused. "Ok, what's on your mind?"

Weiss took a breath before she spoke. "It's about your sister. See, she always seems to leave whenever I'm going to be getting changed, which I honestly wouldn't be concerned if she stayed in the room anyway. But anyway, this morning she stormed away after I got back from my shower, and she ended up leaving this behind." Weiss was showing Yang the bottle of meds that belonged to Ruby, discreetly of course. Yang just look like she felt burdened with Ruby's problems. "I don't know what this is for, not that it really matters, but I figured it was important and so I was going to give it to Ruby should she need it since we have our first class together." Weiss and Yang went to cross the street to the other side of campus where the academic buildings were.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea Weiss." Yang was relieved that she didn't have to worry about Ruby.

Weiss still at least wanted to know what was going on. "But anyway, I just wanted to know, why does Ruby seem to, you know, freak out at the thought of me getting changed in the same room as her? And is the fact that she takes medication going to cause any problems? I figured if I need to do something to help her, I might as well know what it is."

Yang took a minute to ponder what Weiss had asked. "Well, the problem is, this is where I'm going to for my first class. I would talk to Ruby though. She should be the one to tell you not me. You have a good day now Weiss." Yang walked into the building and Weiss stood there for a second before she sighed and went off to her class. After another minute of walking, she made it to the building and found her classroom. She saw Ruby in there and sat down in the seat next to her. It was a large lecture hall and so there were about 70 people already in there, and Ruby was sitting relatively close to the front.

"Hey Weiss." Ruby said awkwardly.

"Hey." Weiss flopped her bag down in front of her and plopped down in the seat, pulling the desk up from the side and in front of her. "You know, you're lucky I noticed this Ruby." Weiss quietly handed Ruby her bottle of medication, with Ruby getting red out of embarrassment. "I didn't know if you needed it or not so I figured better to be safe than sorry." Weiss smiled, and pulled out a bottle of water. "In case you need something to down that."

Ruby waved her off though, pulling a bottle out of her own bag. "I got that covered Weiss. Thanks though, and uh, sorry about rushing out like that. I just didn't want to feel uncomfortable around you while you were changing is all." Ruby felt like she was digging herself into a pit and she didn't know how to react to it.

"Hey don't worry. If you don't feel comfortable with me, than I guess I can get used to that. But I hope you don't make a habit out of running out without your meds." Ruby smiled and laughed awkwardly. "So, if you don't mind me asking, what's the medication for?" Weiss was genuinely curious, and the question caught Ruby off guard a bit.

"The what? Oh, yeah, sorry. Not really thinking right now. Anyway, I have ADHD and so I need to take medication every day in order to focus enough to get through school. Being smart doesn't do you any good if you can't focus on what you're learning right?"

Weiss didn't expect that to be what she had. "Well from the way it seemed, I figured that it would be much worse than that." Quickly trying to not dig herself into a hole she went to recover. "Not that your problem isn't serious of course. I figured it would be something more, risky to your health."

As if on cue, a boy that seemed to be as old as Weiss came and sat down next to Ruby. "So, looks like we start off the year together huh."

Ruby turned to see who it was, and it was none other than Ruby's friend Jaune. "Oh, hey Jaune." Ruby seemed to be happy, from what Weiss could tell. Yet Weiss seemed to hint a bit of awkwardness between the two of them, like they had something they were both avoiding. "Oh yeah, Jaune, this is my roommate Weiss. Weiss, this is Jaune. We know each other from back home."

Jaune suddenly put a smile on his face, and turned his attention to Weiss. "A pleasure to meet someone so dashing and brilliant as yourself if I do say so myself." Ruby subtly rolled her eyes.

"Um, yeah nice to meet you too Jaune. But eh, I think you're coming on a bit strong right now so uh, take it easy there." Weiss was silently backing up in her chair, and Ruby chuckled a bit.

"Ugh, back to the old ways huh." Jaune felt defeated.

That was when the door to the class closed, and they all saw their professor walk into the room. Weiss looked over and recognized the person, immediately turning to Ruby and noticing her beaming with delight.

The professor took a swig from a flask and sat down at the front of the room. "Morning, my name is Dr. Branwen, and if you're not here for General Psych, then you might wanna find out where you're actually supposed to be at." A few of the students stood up and walked out of the room, panic on their faces. "Now that we got that out of the way. I'm gonna go through the list of names, and you're gonna come up to the front and grab a syllabus."

* * *

The class began a minute later than that. It was a General Psychology course, which Weiss and Jaune needed to take as a Gen Ed. but Ruby was taking it for her major. Weiss noted that Ruby seemed to be really paying attention to the class, and knew exactly what was going on the entire time. When it was finally over, Ruby and Weiss got their things together. Jaune was also packing up and trying to start a conversation with Ruby before he left. "So Ruby, you uh, wanna hang out sometime this week?"

Ruby quickly went over her week in her head. "Uh, I'm not sure, at least not with it being the first week of classes. Maybe next week?" Ruby finished packing her stuff and stood up.

Jaune quickly got up after her. "Uh, yeah sure." Weiss could see the awkwardness between them, and the uncomfortable pause didn't help either of them. "Oh uh, I got to get to class now. So uh, see ya Ruby." Jaune walked out of the room, and Ruby walked over to say hello to her Uncle Qrow. Weiss waited for her over by the door, and after a few minutes, Qrow said he had to get ready for his next class, and grab a cup of coffee. He walked out of the room, followed by Ruby and Weiss. Once they got out of the room Ruby sighed.

"Everything ok Ruby?" Weiss seemed to be doing a lot of wondering today, and it wasn't even 10 yet.

"I guess. Glad I have a class with my Uncle, but other than that, things could be better." Ruby felt like she needed to rant for a bit, but she bit her tongue and pulled that smile back onto her face. "Hey, so you have a class at 11 right? And afterwards at noon you are free right?" Weiss was surprised that Ruby knew her schedule so well.

"Yeah that's right."

Ruby was thinking of an idea. "Well, how about you me and Yang get lunch together at noon? I hear the food in the Forum, or whatever they call it is good stuff. Figured we should try it out."

Weiss didn't have any better ideas. "Sure I guess. Got nothin' better to do."

Ruby perked up tremendously at that. "Awesome! Oh hey, I gotta get going. I'll see you later Weiss." Ruby turned off and bolted to her next class. Weiss couldn't help but laugh a bit, then she noticed the tree that was nearby. She walked over to it, sat down under it, and then put some music on to pass the time.

* * *

 **AN: Well, hopefully you guys enjoy the changes I made. There wasn't much that changed in this one, but I did get to include more Qrow, which is always a good thing.**

 **Hope you guess have been enjoying your holidays and I wanted to wish everyone a happy New Year!**

 **Thanks for tuning in, I'll see you next time.**


	4. Need to Know Basis

Ruby finally made it over to her class, and she saw her sister sitting in there bored out of her mind. So she plopped down next to her. Once she was sitting, she laid her head in her arms and leaned on the desk, groaning as she moved. "Yikes, bad day already?" Yang didn't really know what was going on but she figured it would be a good idea to check on Ruby. Even though Yang could be a bit of a pain to her sister sometimes, she still knew when to take a more serious approach.

"Ugh, I don't think Jaune is over it." Ruby said.

"Really? What makes you say that?"

Ruby lifted her head and looked at her sister. "It's because thing's seemed to be awkward between us this morning in class. Weiss was there and she even noticed it. AND I have Uncle Qrow as a professor, yet that didn't even help me feel better."

Yang quickly checked the time. Two minutes until class started. "Ok look you're, you know. He shouldn't be upset by that." Ruby sighed.

"Well..."

Yang noticed the hesitation in Ruby's voice. "He does know about you being a lesbian right?" Yang whispered it into Ruby's ear so that no one else could hear it.

Ruby paused. "I didn't exactly tell him that before we broke up. And the only other people who knows that besides you is Nora, and that's only because she caught me at that party, and Penny, for obvious reasons."

"Well no wonder he hasn't gotten over it yet," Yang sighed, shaking her head at Ruby's decision. "You know, you also got Weiss worrying about this too. I ran into her earlier on my way to class this morning."

"Really?"

"Yep, she asked about your meds, and she was concerned that you were uncomfortable around her, or something like that," Yang commented, recalling what Weiss had told her earlier that day. "Something about you always barging out of the room every time she was going to change?

"Look, it's not that I'm uncomfortable around her, it's that I'm afraid of being around Weiss while she is changing, and I'm afraid of telling other people about this, and I'm just having a terrible first day." Ruby put her head back into her arms. "Sometimes I wish I could just keep my emotions in check, and be comfortable enough to be open about who I am."

"Relax Ruby, I'm sure things will get better. Come on, class is about to start." Ruby begrudgingly lifted her head at the statement. They began their English class. Ruby hated the subject.

Little did Ruby know, Yang was secretly texting their father, letting him know to call Ruby at some point in the day to check on her. ' _Maybe talking to dad will help cheer her up a bit,_ ' Yang thought to herself as she sent the text away, and turned towards the front of the class.

* * *

A few hours later, Weiss walked out of her Intro to Business class. As much as she understood the subject of business, she absolutely hated it. Her parents pushed her into the field so that she could take over their company when she was older. Weiss of course loved her parents, and her parents loved her back, but she felt like she needed to do what she loved and not what they wanted of her. Weiss figured that her little brother Whitley would be more interested in taking over the business instead of her. Since her older sister, Winter, was serving in the military, she was out of the question, but Weiss wasn't sure why she was still the heir to the company.

As she walked across the campus, Weiss looked over at a class that was having their lecture outside, noting that it was an art class. Weiss sighed, she longed to be drawing, it was almost like a calling of hers. Weiss wanted nothing more than to be an artist. She even brought her own sketchbook with her to draw during her free time.

But alas, she was stuck in business, feeling her life tick away second by second. Weiss eventually made her way over to where Ruby and Yang were. Ruby had asked if Weiss wanted to join them for lunch, and Weiss, having no other plans otherwise, decided to join them. Noting that sitting with them were two more girls whom Weiss did not know, Weiss walked over to the group and joined them for lunch.

"Hey Weiss, glad you could make it." Ruby stood up to greet Weiss, then she gestured over to the two unknown females sitting with her. "Weiss this is my friend, Nora Valkyrie, from back home, and her roommate, Pyrrha Nikos. Nora, Pyrrha, this is my roommate, Weiss Schnee." Nora smiled and waved, but Pyrrha looked intrigued.

"Schnee, as in the same Schnee that runs the company of the same name?"

Weiss was surprised it took this long for someone to make the connection. "Yeah. Honestly I'm surprised someone didn't notice that sooner, and kinda glad about that." Pyrrha seemed impressed, but Ruby just looked at Weiss like she had no idea what was going on. Weiss looked over and sighed, then she went to go sit down. "My grandfather created a Solar Energy company 50 years ago. We have been the nations top supplier of Solar Energy, and Solar Energy panels for home use. While we don't have the same reputation as some of the Oil companies, our products and services are always high quality. So the business is booming."

Ruby finally made sense of it all. "So is that why you are a business major?"

Sighing, Weiss replied. "Yeah, though you could say I was, 'guided' into that field."

"Wait a minute," Ruby went on. "Does that mean you're some kind of rich girl?!"

Weiss looked at Ruby with an emotionless expression. "Yes."

"Man, that must be a lot of fun," Ruby went on to say.

"Didn't realize we had an actual princess amongst us," Yang teased.

Weiss took that in, focusing really hard on not letting her expression change over the comment that the blonde had made. "You wish I was an actual princess," Weiss replied, just barely containing the irritation in her voice. Fortunately for her, Ruby continued, making light of the entire thing.

"Just imagine all the pizza I could buy with that."

"Really, Ruby?" That's where your mind goes to first?" Weiss questioned.

"Well, if it was Nora saying that she could buy an unlimited supply of pancakes, then I'd be inclined to believe her." Another person said, coming over to join them.

"Hey Ren." Yang said. Nora jumped up and grabbed him in a big hug, and gave him a kiss on the cheek, to which Ren simply smiled and hugged her back.

"I apologize for taking so long. Jaune had to get lunch by himself and since I was available, I didn't want him to eat alone." Ren sat down next to Nora and promptly introduced himself to Weiss. "Hello there, my name is Lie Ren, though everyone I know calls me Ren. I went to highschool with Yang, Ruby, and Nora, and Nora and I have been dating for a long time now." He couldn't help but turn to her and smile. Ren didn't usually show his affection to Nora, but she knew he really cared, and so did Ren.

"Well I'm Weiss Schnee, Ruby's roommate." Weiss responded.

Yang quickly jumped back to the subject of Jaune. "So how is Jaune doing? I figured he would be glad to be here."

Ruby started to feel a little bit uncomfortable. "Well you know Jaune, has a hard time of adjusting to change. He seemed to be doing ok I guess. Though I did note he seemed distracted." Ruby was almost afraid to see how he was doing, which Yang seemed to note in her body language.

"Well, I assume he has a class right now right? I would say he should join us for lunch because it has been a while since the whole gang hung out together." Ruby looked at her sister like she wanted to hit her.

"He is in one of his History courses right now. Wouldn't be able to make it if we asked." Ren responded.

Weiss, noting the tone beginning to go in a weird direction, decided to change the subject. "So anyway, Ren, Nora, Pyrrha. What majors are you in? I assume you know Yang and Ruby, and you know I'm in business, so what do you guys study?" Ruby was glad that Weiss was trying to change the subject.

Pyrrha started first. "Well, I'm in the field of Criminal Justice. My dad was a cop and so I was always planning on following in his footsteps." Pyrrha smiled, and Ren then spoke up.

"I'm studying Biology, and Nora is studying Theatre. She fits the role perfectly." Nora, as if on cue, stood up and took a bow, imagining she was on stage in front of them. Everyone just seemed to laugh at her eccentric personality.

* * *

As the time went on, lunch seemed to pass by quickly, and soon Ren, Pyrrha and Yang had to get to their class. Ruby had a class later on and Weiss was finished for the day. Ruby Weiss and Nora stayed where they were after their three friends left.

"So, Ruby, you enjoying college so far?" Nora asked. Ruby took a second to think about her her day went so far.

"Well, aside from my classes being not fun with English and awkward in my Psych class, everything is going well so far."

Weiss seemed confused for a second. "Was I really that bad, Ruby? I figured that you were enjoying the class. Plus isn't your Uncle the professor?"

Ruby quickly backpedaled. "No no no it wasn't you. It was, uh, something else."

"Uncle Qrow is your professor?! That's awesome!" Nora exclaimed, cheering Ruby up a little bit.

Weiss thought about it for a second, remembering Jaune. "You talking about your friend Jaune?"

"Oh boy." Nora chimed in.

"What am I missing?" Weiss asked.

"Well...me and Jaune..." Before Ruby could finish her thought, Nora chimed in again.

"Ruby and Jaune used to date back in high school. Needless to say, the breakup didn't go well." Ruby was looking down at the ground, not really wanting to be reminded of what happened.

"Yikes, so I guess I was right when I could just feel the tension between you two huh." Ruby nodded. "You wanna talk about it?" Weiss asked.

"Not right now, ok?" Ruby said.

"You figured that he would get over it by now." Nora said.

"Well, I really haven't talked to him much since the breakup. Needless to say I didn't want to make things worse." Ruby stated.

Nora leaned in to try and keep other people from not listening. "Does he even know?"

"No, and I don't really know if I can bring it up with him yet," Ruby whispered. "It's kinda a big personal thing, I don't know if he's ready to know either."

Weiss was still able to hear what they said, despite Ruby and Nora's attempt at keeping it a secret."Know what?"

Ruby and Nora hoped that she wouldn't hear, and when she did, the two of them froze. "Is there something I should know, Ruby?" Ruby quickly looked around, and tried to find a way to get out of the situation. Fortunately for her, her phone went off and someone was trying to call her.

"Oh sorry, I gotta take this. Hello?" She got up and walked away, taking her stuff with her. Weiss got the hint that she wasn't interested in talking about it at the time. When Weiss looked at Nora, she threw her hands up.

"Not my place to bring it up. Ask her later," Nora said.

"Well, I should probably head back to my room," Weiss said as she too grabbed her stuff to leave.

"Yeah, I got class to get to," Nora agreed. "It was nice to meet you, Weiss!"

"You too, Nora."

As she made her way back, she noticed Yang's roommate Blake walking hand in hand with someone who Weiss assumed was her boyfriend. When Blake noticed, she waved at Weiss and Weiss waved back.

"Hello, Blake," Weiss said, pausing her journey to speak with her friend. "I take it you're off to class."

"Yeah, I have my last class of the day coming up, a speech class," Blake replied. "Oh, Weiss, this is my boyfriend, Sun. Sun, meet Weiss, she's rooming with my roommate's sister."

"Pleasure to meet you," Sun said, beaming with confidence, though Weiss could do without him leaving his shirt unbuttoned, and his abs exposed. "Can't stick around and chat, got class to head to."

"Right, have fun!" Weiss said as she watched the two of them go on their way. Continuing her journey, Weiss walked back to her new home. ' _Maybe I'll do some drawing when I get back, help myself feel a bit more comfortable._ '

Once Weiss got back to her room, she plopped her stuff down onto her bed. She checked her phone and noticed she got a text from Ruby.

=Hey Weiss, I'm sorry that I bailed on you like that, but I don't really feel comfortable talking about what happened between me and Jaune. Also my Dad actually did call me to see how I was doing, so sorry! I'll see you when I get back from classes.=

Weiss simply put it aside for later, then she flopped down onto the couch, took out a sketchbook and started to draw.

* * *

 **AN: Hey, you guys are still here! So with how my life is shaping up right now, I am gonna be pretty busy for the next couple of months. I have my wedding coming up on the 14th of April, so things are coming down to the wire. Will this impact updates for this story? Yes and No. Yes because I won't be able to go through and edit more chapters in a completely time-managed way. No, because I have enough of a backlog in this that I don't have to rush to get stuff done. However, that does mean what I did edit so far may not get as much of a refinement as it deserves.**

 **My plan is still to post every other week, and that works out brilliantly for me at this time. So hopefully you guys keep coming to read this, because I'm really feeling good about how this is turning out now (granted, any improvements to this story is going to look like gold considering I started this over 4 years ago).**

 **Anyway, thanks for sticking around! Reviews, as always, are welcomed and appreciated, but not required. They help me make improvements to the story where necessary, but I'm not gonna say that you guys have to write out something.**

 **Hope you guys are enjoying 2018 so far, I know this is going to be a great year for me!**


	5. Bittersweet Memories

Weiss must have been drawing for what felt like hours. She was patiently waiting for Ruby to get back, hoping that she would have some sort of explanation into what had happened earlier in the day. In that time, she managed to draw, a Rabbit, a quick sketch of a dragon, and two figures fighting each other with swords. While they weren't the best that she had drawn, the fact that she had gotten multiple drawings done in that time frame showed how much talent she had at art.

' _I haven't been able to do this in a while,_ ' Weiss thought to herself, letting out a sigh as she looked over the drawings. ' _God, that must've been right before Winter came home the last time before her redeployment._ '

" _Doesn't it seem like a waste of your time to be doing this pointless drawing when you're literally going to be inheriting a multi-million dollar company? You have so many better things that you need to do, and yet you spend it on this lackluster drawings of yours._ "

Weiss closed her eyes and pushed that thought out of her head. She didn't need her younger brother's judgement pervading her thoughts. Winter always thought her drawings were great, and the eldest Schnee daughter knew how much Weiss would rather spend her time drawing. Alas, Weiss knew that what she was doing was best for the business, so she was willing to stick with it, and let her drawings be a way to relax and enjoy herself.

' _Right, now's not the time to be thinking about that stuff,_ ' She continued to contemplate, before her thoughts returned to what Ruby would have to say for running off the way she did.

Since they were roommates, Weiss figured that it might be something she would want to know about. What was it that the younger girl was keeping secret. Ruby was certainly playing a lot of things close to the chest, and while Weiss could understand why she was doing that, she didn't want what was going on with Ruby to come back and harm them in some way.

As if the very thought of Ruby caused the forces of the universe to align in some strange way, Ruby finally made it back to the room. Weiss watched as she saw her roommate fling herself onto her bed, after dropping her stuff on the couch and climbing up to get in, presumably to take a nap.

"So Ruby, how was the rest of your day?" Weiss had asked, working to break the ice.

"Eh, not that bad. Turns out me and Blake have a Speech class together. So at least I know someone in the class," Ruby said, turning her head to face Weiss as she laid face down on her pillow.

Weiss nodded, put down her sketch pad and walked over to the bunk beds. "Anything interesting happen?" Weiss didn't want the conversation to die, much to Ruby's dismay.

Ruby sighed, turned to the side of the bed and jumped down off of it. She walked over to the couch and sat down. Weiss pulled up a chair and sat across from her. "Look, I'm sorry about earlier ok? I just, didn't want to talk about all that ok?" Ruby really wanted things to end right then and there, but Weiss just wouldn't let up.

"I understand that you have things you don't want to talk about. The only thing is, I want to know if there is anything that would affect me because of it. Like say Jaune tries to come up to me and asks me out. Obviously now I would say no because I don't want to strain our relationship, but is there anything at all that I should know about?" Weiss had good intentions, but still Ruby wasn't that quick to speak about it.

"I, I don't know ok? I'm sorry if that doesn't help you but, I, have issues that I need to figure out right now." Ruby slunk down in her seat. Weiss reached across the gap between them and placed her hand on Ruby's knee.

"It's ok Ruby, if you have a problem, let me try and help you. You're the Psych major, you should know that talking helps problems."

Ruby was about to retort that statement, but then realized, that it was pointless to do so. Weiss had beaten her with her own interests. "Alright, I'll tell you, but please, can we get some dinner first? I'm starving." Weiss figured that was a good idea. Ruby would be able to calm down, and she could satisfy her stomach for the time being.

"Alright, I think that sounds like a wonderful idea," Weiss agreed as she felt her stomach start to growl.

* * *

Weiss and Ruby made their way down to the dining hall. When they got there, they went up to the buffet to grab some dinner. Weiss noticed out of the corner of her eye someone she didn't want to see. "Oh god." Ruby wondered what Weiss noticed.

"What?"

"Oh, it's just someone I knew from high school. See that guy over there, standing over that poor girl that just wants to be left alone? Yeah his name is Cardin Winchester. He was basically the school bully back at my high school. How he managed to get into Signal is beyond me." Ruby seemed to already not like him.

"God that's terrible. Honestly how could someone be that rude?" Weiss still didn't know how to answer that, even after years of knowing him, she had no idea what to make of him.

"Apparently, he can. Don't know how, but he can."

"Reminds me of this guy I went to highschool with named Mercury. Guy was a total jerk to everyone, was snarky and sarcastic all the time. Pretty much was the very definition of a big stupid jerk," Ruby commented. "Man I was glad when Yang knocked some sense into him."

"Sounds like a fun guy," Weiss sarcastically commented as they grabbed their dinner.

"Yeah, he was always hanging around with these two other girls named Cinder and Emerald, who were just as bad as he was," Ruby continued. "I remember this one time, he tried to steal Jaune's lunch the one day because he felt like it, then he decided he was gonna try and mess with Yang's hair. Yang cold-clocked him hard on the jaw for that, then broke his leg when he tried to fight back. She got suspended for that, but boy was it fun to watch."

"Really? Yang beat up someone? She seems like such a nice person," Weiss said, not really knowing what Yang could do.

"Well, you only met us a few days ago, but let's just say you really don't want to mess with her hair. She's a second degree blackbelt in Krav Maga, spent a lot of time training so she can easily break people," Ruby admitted. "In any case, I'm glad I don't have to deal with them any time soon. Even if they're here, what are the chances of seeing them once more?"

"Probably not that high," Weiss agreed.

When they sat down to start eating, Weiss noticed Cardin heading towards them, seeing Weiss and then turning his attention to him. "Oh boy, here he comes. Just ignore him, I'll take care of this." Weiss said to her roommate.

"Well well, if it isn't the Ice Princess. Haven't got enough of me Weiss?" Cardin was being smug as Weiss noted was usual for him.

"Cardin, don't you have anything better to do than being a jerk to everyone?"

Cardin couldn't help but laugh. "You of all people should know that I don't care about whether I'm a jerk or not. It's gotten me so far in life, and I plan on keeping the ball rolling. So how about you go get me some dinner huh?" Cardin stood there laughing. Weiss was content to just sit there and ignore him until he went away, but Ruby thought of a better idea.

"Fine, you want dinner?" She took some of her dinner and shoved it right into his face, causing him to become a mess. "Here you go, just don't choke on it." Weiss' jaw dropped and she started to laugh at Cardin.

Cardin got mad and looked like he was about to punch Ruby in the face. "You really don't know how fucked you are now huh. Guess it's time to show you some respect." He started to cock his fist back and was about to punch Ruby, but when he swung at her, she simply ducked out of the way. Some of the other students who were watching saw that he was trying to hit Ruby, and they decided to not let him hit the girl. While they stopped him from trying again, Ruby was saying that they didn't need to do that for her. Either way, Cardin walked away and Ruby and Weiss finished dinner.

"Well that was a thing," Weiss commented.

"So, how long do you think it'll take for Yang to find out about this?" Ruby asked.

"Who knows," Weiss replied as she continued to eat.

* * *

As they were walking out, Ruby. noticed her phone was going off. "Hello?"

"Are you already getting yourself into trouble, Ruby?"

Ruby's face dropped, the sound of her sister's voice, especially when it was serious and as stern as it sounded, was never something the smaller girl enjoyed. "What are you talking about Yang?"

Weiss could only assume that Yang had heard about the incident with Cardin. Though from the tone that her roommate had, Yang wasn't happy about what happened.

"Ruby, you remember what happened when we got into it with Mercury, I don't want you getting into trouble for stuff like this. I don't want you to get hurt because some jackass decided you needed to be taught a lesson," Yang continued on the other end of the line.

"Oh relax sis, I knew I was going to be fine. I actually embarrassed him pretty well if you ask me," Ruby replied, a sentiment that Weiss couldn't help but agree with.

"Look, I'm fine ok? I actually feel good about it, the guy was a jerk and so he deserved it," Ruby went on to say. "Apparently Weiss knew him from high school, and he was pretty similar to Mercury aside from the people he hung out with."

"That doesn't make things any better," Yang muttered.

"Yang, please don't worry about it ok? I'll talk to you later."

"Fine, talk to you later, Rubes," Yang groaned, letting her sister get off the phone.

"Alright bye." Ruby then hung up as they were entering their dorm building.

"Well that was interesting." Weiss said to Ruby.

"Yeah, no kidding. Still don't know how there are people like him."

Weiss shrugged. "World is a weird place. One minute you are going to have a nice dinner with a friend, the next minute, your friend is shoving food into someone's face." Weiss was obviously trying to lighten the mood.

Ruby just looked over at her. "Ha ha, very funny princess." Ruby started to laugh at that.

"Hey, don't call me that. I don't like that moniker. Makes me feel uncomfortable."

Ruby was still laughing at Weiss. "Oh come on, I'm only joking. I don't mean any ill will behind it." They had gotten back to their room and Ruby plopped down on the couch.

"Still it isn't something I like being called, ok?" Weiss walked over to her bed and sat down on it and laid back.

"Ok ok, sorry. I will try to not call you that. Can't make any promises though." Ruby smiled at Weiss, who just shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Wanna share why you don't like being called Princess?"

"You want to know, well I'll tell you after you explain what happened with that whole thing earlier," Weiss replied.

"Let me study first, I don't wanna be in a not so good state for studying, alright?" Ruby replied.

"Fine, then get those textbooks out," Weiss conceded.

* * *

A few hours went by while Ruby and Weiss were studying for their classes. Eventually they finished up and Weiss knew that before Ruby got into her games, she needed to get her attention and ask about earlier in the day. "Hey Ruby. So you wanna talk about what happened earlier? You said that you would." Weiss pointed out.

Ruby looked up at the ceiling. "Man, I was hoping that you would forget about that." Ruby laid down on the couch, and Weiss pulled up a chair along side. "Ok, so me and Jaune met in middle school. I was moved ahead a grade because of how smart I was, and so the teachers thought I could handle it well." Weiss had grabbed a notepad and pencil to write down details so she could make sense of it all. "Anyway, around the end of our sophomore year in high school, me and him started dating. Things went well for a while, and we managed to get along quite well. So when it was around Christmas time during my senior year, he and I had been dating for a while, and so he wanted to take things a step further."

Weiss had to ask really quick. "You mean sex?" Ruby sighed and nodded.

' _I mean, she is cute, I imagine she's had plenty of people try to ask her for that sort of thing… wait what? Where did that come from?_ ' Weiss thought briefly before shoving those thoughts to the side in order to hear the rest of Ruby's tale.

"Me and Jaune hadn't done anything sexual like that at all, nothing past second base. I just didn't feel comfortable with it. So, the night after Christmas, he took to this nice place for dinner, went back to his place with his parents not home. And he wanted to go all the way with me. I told him that I wasn't comfortable with it, and he felt like I was just messing with him. He kept pushing the issue that night while I was over with him." Weiss started to feel bad for both of them. "I didn't know why I felt uncomfortable with him at the time, eventually I found out though. Not gonna get into that now, but back to where I was. Anyway he had asked me why I didn't want to do anything like that with him, and I told him I didn't know. After waiting for this long time, he had so much pent up frustrations with the amount of waiting he had to do. So I guess he just let it all out." Ruby paused for a second to take a deep breath. She was starting to let her emotions get to her. "He asked me why I was holding out on him, and I told him that I just didn't feel like I wanted to do that. He thought that it was just because it was him, or that I was off with someone else, and it just upset me, that the man I cared about so much, ended up saying all these things to me, all because I didn't feel comfortable with sex." Weiss had given up on trying to write it all down, and she just put her hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"After he was done, and he saw that I was crying, he calmed down and apologized for his behavior. Said it was out of line and that he shouldn't have done that. But it was too late, he said it. And he showed me what he was thinking. I didn't want to think that he would do that to me, but he did, and I couldn't handle it. I told him that he had hurt me with what he said, that what he said wasn't just something he said out of frustration, but that he had thought about this before. I thought that he would be the last person to do that, and I felt like he ripped at my heart by saying all that." She paused and laughed a tiny bit, which confused Weiss. "I still remember exactly what I said to him. I said, 'Jaune, you're the one person who is supposed to care about me and understand me the most. But all this, not understanding my feelings, my comfort level with some things, I just don't know why you would do this to me. I'm sorry Jaune, but I can't do this anymore.'" Ruby sighed again.

"Ruby I..."

She was interrupted by Ruby. "I ended up walking home alone, in the cold crying the whole time that night. And it was an hour walk and I felt more alone than ever before. I felt like I had lost a friend, and that nothing could fix what happened between us." Weiss started to rub Ruby's back with her hand. "I didn't even bother to call my family about what had happened. I needed some time alone to think about what had happened. About halfway through the trip, Jaune texted me, asking if we had broken up. I only sent back one word, and it was a simple yes. I didn't get a reply from him at all for a long time."

Weiss leaned over and gave Ruby a hug, hoping that it would help to cheer her up. "After I got home, I didn't even bother talking to my family, I just went into my room and cried for two days straight. The rest of the year was just a crap shoot, because I felt like I had lost a friend. Eventually I figured out why I was uncomfortable with the idea of sex, but I would rather not talk about that right now. Jaune still doesn't know about that though so I guess that is why he still isn't over us yet."

Weiss couldn't help but say something now. "Maybe you should talk to him about that. If he wants to be friends with you again, then I would guess that he would understand it."

Ruby just laughed. "We kinda fixed things between us a bit. Talked it out at one point during the summer. Still wish he would learn to move on though, but for our sakes, he wants to be friends again. Maybe I should tell him after all."

Weiss nodded to Ruby and encouraged it. "Hell yeah you should tell him. If it will heal the friendship between the two of you then go for it." Ruby smiled. She knew what she had to do, and she felt a lot better about herself even after the day she had. Ruby sent a message to Jaune asking to meet him at the tree outside the dining hall, she wanted to talk to him and get her friend back.

* * *

 **AN: Didn't change much of the actual talk that Ruby and Weiss had, I felt like that was one of those things that I couldn't touch at all. However we did get some other stuff that I'm really glad about. And I wanted to clarify something I got in a review. The amount of stuff that's being changed in the story, I'm adding a bit more to the overall story, tweaking how certain scenes go, maybe even taking one or two things out, but overall there won't be much of a change from the original. Take out the bad, rework the ok, and fluff up the good. That's the overall plan for this story.**

 **Bit of a side note, now that volume 5 is wrapped up, I figured I'd mention what I thought of the volume as a whole. So I got three things that I want to mention.**

 **First, this definitely was an extremely development heavy volume, even though there was, presumably a lot of action that was also supposed to take place. In the finale this really shows because, any fighting is mostly done off screen, and that's annoying. However, on the positive side, we pretty much went full ham into the relationship between Yang and Raven, and the development for Raven, and subsequently Yang in general, was really incredible if you ask me. That story was easily the best part of the volume as a whole, seeing those two characters get developed the way they did, and the conversation they had in the finale was a much needed shining light in that (IN MY OPINION) lackluster episode.**

 **Two, I've been saying this before, and I'll continue to say it again. RWBY is a movie, that is released in parts each volume. I watched the volume each week as it came out, and it was killer on me sometimes, because there would be points where they end an episode on a somewhat sour note. Compare that to when my fiancee saw it, we watched the entire volume in one go the day the finale came out. She pointed out that it was smarter for her to see it in that fashion, than actually watching it each week. So for those of you who don't like how RT did a lot of the cliffhangers, it's part of the way their formatting works, if you don't like it, just wait till it's all released and watch it in one fell swoop.**

 **Final point, and I'm gonna end this on a more positive note. Compared to last volume, this volume was better. I'm starting to get my love for this show back again, I've wanted to write more because I've been enjoying the show more, compared to the end of last volume where I wasn't all that enthusiastic about it. The show is improving, and while the crew is still finding their way about it, the overall improvements are noticeable. While it wasn't a major improvement, every little bit counts, so take that for what it's worth.**

 **Anyway, sorry for rambling a bit at the end here, hope you guys enjoyed the story so far, and I'll catch you guys next chapter.**


	6. Clearing the Air

Ruby managed to get to where she was meeting with Jaune quickly. She didn't want to make him wait and have him think he got stood up. Though when the smaller girl had to wait, she got really nervous. That lead to her climbing the tree so that she could relax and get her mind off of all of those nerves that were stressed out before he got there. The climbing helped her think things through quickly in her head. The younger girl realized that she had to explain to him something was kept hidden for a while now.

Thinking back to that night she learned about herself, Ruby recalled as many details as she could, but even her mind couldn't remember everything give her state of being at the time.

Once she had gotten to a high enough branch that she could easily see Jaune, without it being too far off the ground, Ruby sat there for a few moments before she noticed him arrive. The stress of the situation the freshman was in was starting to hit her, so she pulled out the vape that the redhead had brought with her to college. "Hopefully I don't have to use this too often, the less I use this the better."

When she saw him, she let out a puff of vapor cloud, the soothing taste of strawberry-stuffed french toast helping put her mind at ease. Ruby then waved to Jaune, letting him know where she was. "Hey, Jaune, whats up?" Ruby started the conversation, before taking another deep puff to calm her nerves.

Jaune looked up, with what Ruby believed to be a slightly faked smile. "Hey, not much. Just going to get some dinner after this." Ruby turned herself on the tree branch so that she was facing him. "By the way, I hope you aren't getting back into that habit again."

"Relax, Jaune," Ruby replied after letting out the vapor. "This is helping me get over the whole thing in general. And I'll be trying to wean myself off of this as well as time goes on."

"Alright then," Jaune conceded. "So are you going to come down then?"

"Sorry for keeping you from dinner, but this is important," She started to move herself in a way that allowed her to drop from the branch. Jaune stepped out of the way so that she wouldn't land on him.

"So, what's this big thing you need to tell me?" Jaune asked. Ruby felt her heart race. She wanted to tell him the truth, but she didn't know where to begin, and she didn't want to upset him again.

"Well uh...the thing I wanted to say...I, uh..." Ruby wasn't handling this well.

Jaune decided to but in. "Ruby, if you don't want to tell me, then I'll go." Jaune looked to be walking away, but then Ruby stopped him.

"No wait, Jaune." She sighed, putting the vape away so she could give him her whole attention. "Look, I want to tell you, but now that I'm here, it isn't exactly the easiest thing to do." Jaune sighed, walked over to the tree, and sat down at its base. Ruby followed suit after him.

"Would you bear with me if I seem to have trouble with this?" Ruby asked, to which Jaune nodded. "Ok, so, do you remember that valentine's day party after we broke up?"

"Uh-huh."

"Now,you remember how Yang invited me to go, and Nora invited you to go, yet neither one of us knew that the other was going to be there?"

"Uh-huh."

"So you remember how we noticed each other and left right?"

"Yeah I remember, why do you ask?"

Ruby took a deep breath and stretched out her shoulders. "Well, I ended up staying at the party Jaune."

Jaune looked confused for a second. "I thought you said that you left that party. Went home as soon as you saw me there."

Ruby looked down at her knees and held them against her chest. "I wanted to leave, but since I was with Yang, I had to stay there. I had to 'drive her home' or whatever the hell you want to call it." Ruby looked up at Jaune to see how he was reacting to the whole thing. So far from what she could tell, he only looked confused.

The smaller girl looked back at the ground. "Since I ended up staying there, I decided that I needed to get my mind off of things, and so I didn't know it, but someone ended up handing me a drink. After I took a sip, I realized what it was, yet I don't know why, I just kept drinking." Ruby looked to see how Jaune was doing and he seemed to be concerned. "I ended up getting completely smashed that night. Look I know what you're thinking, and no, nothing bad happened." She looked away, as if she was trying to hide her face from him.

Jaune let out a little bit of a sigh, relieved to hear that little bit of information. Afterwards he continued to wonder what Ruby was talking about.

"While I was still there, someone came up to me, and they were being flirty with me, and with me in the midst of drinking, I think I was only a bit buzzed when this happened, I wasn't really going to complain. I actually knew what was going on at the time." Jaune started to look upset. Ruby looked up at him and noticed, so she decided to calm him down a bit. "Look, Jaune, I'm sorry if I'm upsetting you ok? I honestly was afraid that this would happen. If you want me to stop then I will ok?"

Jaune took a second to think about it, then he shook his head. "No, keep going. If this is something important, then I might as well hear it ok?" Ruby nodded, looked off into the distance, and then continued.

"We ended up going to an upstairs room privately and started making out. I was still drinking as well and I eventually got to the point where I can't even remember everything that happened." She looked back at Jaune, who seemed to be getting mad. Ruby thought it was a combination of her doing something she wouldn't let him do, and him not being successful with her. "Jaune, before you get mad, this is the part you need to hear the most. When I woke up, the first thing I saw, was a woman lying naked across from me."

Jaune's look of frustration turned to a look of absolute confusion. "A, a what?" He tried to make sense of it all, but he couldn't.

"Yeah, a woman. I don't know why, but I found that to be a nice thing for me. I thought to myself, at least it's not some guy." Jaune was still trying to piece everything together in her mind. "After that, I ended up taking a few days to think about myself, and what I truly felt was right in my eyes. And I finally realized that after all this time, the reason I never wanted to have sex with you, was because I'm actually a lesbian."

Jaune let out a long breath, he wasn't expecting that. Ruby was hoping that she didn't lose him as a friend forever. "You ok, Jaune?" Ruby asked since he was being very quiet.

"I...I guess so. You understand if I'm a bit shocked by this right? I wasn't expecting to be told that an ex is a lesbian."

Ruby laughed a bit. "It's ok, I understand." She pulled her vape back out and took a large puff of it since she knew her nerves were shot by this point. "Sorry, it still has a somewhat calming effect for me. If you want me to not do this while you're around, I'll stop."

"No, no, if it helps you, I don't see why I would have a problem with this," Jaune countered. "I still think you should stop even that, but I know that it's a long process."

"Yeah, well we can thank Penny for that," Ruby grumbled.

"Wait, it was because of her that you were smoking?" Jaune asked.

Ruby took an even larger puff after talking about Penny. "Can we please just… not talk about that, not talk about her?"

"Right, sorry, didn't mean to upset you." Jaune smiled a bit, before getting another pensive look on his face. "So, where does that leave us now?"

Ruby didn't think about what would happen after she had told him. So she thought about it for a few seconds, then she realized something else. "Jaune, aside from you, only Yang and Nora know about this. Now I don't mean to be rude, but I don't want anyone else to know either." Jaune understood and nodded to her. "As for us, I guess things go back to the way they should be. Us being the bestest of friends." Ruby smiled, hoping that Jaune would be as enthusiastic. When he didn't seem to be that way, she became concerned again. "Was it something I said Jaune?"

The blonde looked up at Ruby. "It's just, I don't know how easy that would be, going back to just friends. I mean, so far it hasn't been easy, and that was before learning you were a lesbian." Jaune did have a point, he would need time to adjust. Ruby decided to stand up and turn towards him.

"Jaune, can I say something?" He looked up at her with a curious look on his face. "I honestly still care about you, but it's not in the way you're thinking of. To me, I think of you as a brother more than anything else. Someone who would care about me and watch out for my well being, yet want me to be happy doing my own thing and support me in my choices." Ruby noticed Jaune perk up a bit. "Jaune, you're that brother I never had."

"I think that I like that idea Ruby." Ruby smiled, and then wrapped Jaune in a hug after he stood up, to which Jaune hugged back. When Ruby and Jaune separated, Ruby couldn't help but be her usual perky self.

"I'm just glad that I got my friend back. It was really bad not having you around to hang out with. God we need some catching up to do." Ruby and Jaune both laughed, they both seemed happy that things were finally worked out between them. "Ya know what, we could end up going into town sometime to pick up some chicks together."

At that thought, Jaune couldn't help but bust out laughing at that. "Oh wow, never thought that would be said to me today, especially by you." Ruby just laughed. "Alright, well, I gotta go get some dinner. I'll see ya tomorrow Ruby." Jaune started to head into the dining hall.

"See ya Jaune." Ruby couldn't help but smile, she got her friend back, and she was able to tell someone the truth about herself.

Ruby started to make her way back to her room. Weiss was probably wondering how things went for her, and she wanted to get something to eat herself and was gonna ask Weiss to go with her. The walk back gave her time to reflect on the day. Even though her day started out bad, things got better and ultimately, she couldn't have asked for a better ending.

She saw that Weiss was someone she could talk to about things, and that she was able to be herself around her friends again. Jaune and her had smoothed things out and they could go back to being friends.

Now that she had gone through her first day, she was glad to be there. The moon was hanging high in the sky, and the breeze was light, but it felt nice. Ruby took the time to soak in the atmosphere, the beauty around her. She felt happy, the happiest she has been in a while if you were to ask her. Ruby couldn't help but smile at the image around her, and she was captivated by it.

When she got back to her dorm, before she went in she stopped and turned around, getting one last look at the beauty around her. She took a deep breath of the fresh air, and sighed. Smiling, she walked back into her building.

After she opened the door, Ruby saw Weiss sitting at her desk studying. Weiss turned her head to see who had come, seeing her roommate standing in the doorway. "Hey, how did things go?" Weiss had asked, turning her whole body towards Ruby. Ruby walked into the room, over to Weiss desk, and leaned against it.

"Things honestly couldn't be better right now." Ruby was still feeling good about the day.

"That's great. I know it must have been hard to do, but I'm glad that it worked out." Weiss smiled at Ruby.

Ruby nodded back at Weiss. "Yeah, it wasn't easy, but I'm glad I did it." Ruby sighed. "Hey, you wanna get something to eat? I heard of this nice little cafe in town that has some really cool desserts."

Weiss chuckled and shook her head. "Yeah, I guess so. I need a break from the studying anyway." Weiss stood up and grabbed her purse. Ruby quickly grabbed her wallet and they went on their way.

* * *

As they made their way downtown, Weiss knew it was time for her to make good on something she had said earlier. "I owe you a bit of an explanation now, don't I?"

"What?" Ruby asked, forgetting what Weiss had promised.

"Why I don't like being called princess?"

Ruby's eyes lit up at the response. "Oh, right. I actually forgot you had promised to tell me."

"Well, it's mostly because of people like Cardin, who would call me that just because I was rich, a quick useful jab used to get under my skin," Weiss started to say. "But it was mostly because my family isn't exactly the pinnacle of perfection. My brother would always call me this because he doesn't exactly like me, thinks that he deserves better than I do, that sort of thing. So I hope you can understand when I say I'd rather not have you guys, my friends, call me that."

"I promise that I won't call you Princess," Ruby replied, letting the conversation die down for a few moments before speaking up again. "Thanks, Weiss."

Weiss looked at Ruby not knowing what she meant. "What for?"

"Well, for listening to what I had to say. Ya know, for pushing me out the door and having me go talk to Jaune. But most of all, thanks for helping me get a friend back." Ruby looked at Weiss and smiled.

Weiss simply put her arm around Ruby's shoulder. "That's what friends do, Ruby." Weiss made her roommate smile. The two of them kept on walking for a bit longer, and Ruby couldn't help but feel like Weiss had just become one of her best friends.

* * *

 **AN: Sorry for the late post, got completely distracted last night by other things. Couple of minor detail changes here, nothing too drastic.**

 **Shoutout to Shadow Nightblade for taking time out of their busy schedule to sit with me and help me make improvements to this chapter. Go check out what they wrote, including their newest story!**

 **Anyway, feel free to follow fave and/or review at your discretion. They are not required but they are greatly appreciated. See you guys next chapter!**


	7. Playing Dress-Up

About halfway through October, school was going pretty well for Ruby, Weiss, and all of their friends. They all learned that Blake had a boyfriend named Sun Wukong, and so he became a part of their group as well. Classes were going well for everyone, and they were coming up on Fall break. Ruby began to wonder what Weiss was going to do, and so when she got back from class, she decided to ask Weiss about it. "Hey, Weiss, what's up?"

Weiss looked up from the couch where she was drawing and looked over to Ruby. "Oh just the usual. Passing the time." Ruby seemed to noticed that Weiss loved to draw more often than anything else.

"You sure do like to draw a lot, don't you?"

Weiss shrugged. "I do like to draw, but it's only a hobby of mine I guess." Weiss looked back down at her sketchpad and returned to her art. Ruby decided to take a look at what she was doing, and she peered over Weiss' shoulder. Weiss, who wasn't very confident in her own abilities as an artist, quickly hid away her work. "Ruby, what are you doing?" Ruby, realizing she had been busted, decided to just say it.

"I wanted to see what you were drawing. You never show me any of it and I want to see what you draw."

Weiss seemed skeptical at first. "Why would you want to see my art? I doubt that you would be impressed anyway." Weiss' lack of confidence in her own abilities was one of the first things Ruby noticed when it came to drawing.

"Well, I can tell what a person is feeling when I see the kind of things they draw. For instance, if I see someone drawing a person sitting in the back corner of the room curled up in a ball in a very dark shade of gray or black, then I get the impression that the person is feeling upset or alone. If the picture is something like hands being intertwined, then it could be that the person feels love, friendship or some kind of loyalty of sorts."

Ruby definitely knew what she was talking about, and even Weiss had to admit that. "Ok, I will admit that I am impressed." Weiss conceded.

"So can you show me the drawings then?" Ruby asked again, hopeful to get a yes out of Weiss.

Weiss took a second to think about it.

"I'm sorry, Ruby, but I still don't feel comfortable showing other people my work yet. Maybe after some time I'll get more confident, but until then I'm afraid that these are staying hidden."

Ruby looked down in defeat. "Fine, maybe another time then." Ruby walked over to the bed, and she jumped onto it. When she was laying there, she suddenly remembered what she originally wanted to know. "Oh hey, I totally got distracted from what I really wanted to ask you." The redhead asked as she shot up and turned to the side of the bed, dropping down to the floor afterwards. "What are you gonna be doing for fall break?"

Weiss looked up at her roommate. "Well, my parents are coming to get me on Friday, and I am going to be visiting some family over the break. Other than that, I'm pretty much doing nothing." Weiss didn't really seem to be that enthusiastic about the break at all.

"Sounds like fun, huh. Well if your parents are coming in on friday, then why don't we all go out to dinner together?"

Weiss gave Ruby a confused look. She was surprised by how Ruby could think of some of the strangest things sometimes. "I'm not entirely sure that's a good idea. Nothing against you but my family probably just wouldn't be interested in that this time." As if on cue, Weiss' phone went off. Her mother was calling. "Excuse me, I got to take this." Weiss picked up her phone and answered it.

"Hello? Hi, mother." Weiss paused to let her mother speak. "I'm doing well. Classes are going better than we thought." Ruby gestured to ask Weiss about what she had suggested. "Of course. One second." Weiss pulled the phone away from her ear and turned to Ruby, keeping a hushed tone so that her mother didn't hear what she was saying to her roommate. "What are you doing? I'm on the phone."

"Ask her about getting dinner together. Please?" Ruby decided to do her puppy dog eyes, which worked very well on her sister. Weiss tried to resist, and almost did, but even she caved in.

"Fine. But don't be surprised if she says no." Weiss put the phone back up to her ear. "I'm back. Sorry for that, my roommate wanted me to ask you something. She wanted to know if you and father would be interested in getting dinner together this friday when you come to pick me up." Weiss waited and listened, and eventually her face showed a look of complete surprise. "Ok, well I will let her know. You have a good evening, mother." Weiss hung up the phone and still looked shocked.

"She said that dinner together would sound lovely." Weiss was still trying to believe it herself, but Ruby started to jump up and down in the air.

"Woohoo! This is going to be awesome." Suddenly Ruby stopped jumping and had a thought. "Wait, does that mean I have to dress all fancy like?"

Weiss snapped back into reality and shrugged. "I don't know, but even if it isn't formal, you should still look nice." Ruby sighed, partially regretting her decision to get dinner with the family of her roommate.

"Great, you're helping me look nice just so you know." Weiss just laughed and stood up next to Ruby.

"Oh what would you do without me?" Ruby and Weiss just laughed.

* * *

Over the next few days, Ruby kept thinking of what to wear for Weiss' parents. Friday eventually came sooner than she expected, and she was freaking out with her sister while trying to decide on what to wear. "Oh my god, Yang, you aren't helping me any."

Yang looked at her sister with surprise. "What did I do?"

"You really think I'm going to wear **this** to go out in? I'm going to be getting dinner with Weiss and her parents, not going to a kegger."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Ruby, this is a classy look. Trust me, you would fit in really well."

"Yeah, I'd fit in with the slut crowd. No offense, Yang, but you really need to take things more seriously."

The older girl walked up to her sister, who was standing in front of the mirror in Yang's room. "And you, need to get the stick out of your ass."

Ruby turned to face Yang. "Whoa whoa whoa, there is no stick up there." Yang rolled her eyes again.

A second later, Blake had gotten back into the room. She looked over to see Ruby and Yang arguing. "Really? Not even back for a second, and you two look like you are about to kill each other." Blake was someone that could read a situation easily, perhaps it was her faunus nature, but Ruby didn't want to ask and make a scene out of it.

"Blake, can you help me with something since my sister isn't going to do me any good?"

The black haired girl put her bag down and walked over to the two sisters, leaning against the wall. "Depends on what it is." Fair enough for Ruby.

"Look, I'm supposed to be meeting with Weiss and her parents for a nice dinner, only problem is, I don't want to look like I normally do. I asked Yang for help, yet she keeps suggesting I go out looking like a slut."

Blake put up her hand and cut her off. "Stop. Yang, remember how I said we need to run to the store? Go do that now, I'll take care of your sister." the blonde in the room was about to say something, but Blake gave her this look that said don't try to argue, and so Yang begrudgingly walked away. Once the elder sister had left, Blake turned to Ruby. "In my opinion, the dress Yang suggested is terrible. How formal do you have to be for this though?"

Ruby thought for a second. "Well, I was never told how formal I had to be."

Blake thought about it for a few seconds. "Ok, here's what I got. Put on something like this, and a pair of black dress pants, and you should look fine. If you need anything else done, now is your last chance to speak." Blake seemed to be quick with conversation, not really wanting to talk to people much.

"Aside from making my hair look better than it is now, nothing really." Blake shook her head, she just had to ask. The bookworm grabbed a chair and pulled it into the middle of the room.

"Sit down then." Ruby did as she was told so that Blake could get a good look at things. "Ok, there isn't much I can do aside from straighten it. The red highlights in your hair don't leave much room for doing anything fancy without completely making your hair look out of whack."

Blake grabbed a straightener, and started to work on Ruby's hair. Ruby didn't like the uncomfortable silence that set in, so she felt a conversation was in order. "So, how come you don't seem to talk to people that much? It always seems like you are distant from everyone."

In response, Blake simply shrugged. "I just don't feel like talking to people. They don't really have many nice things to say to me."

The younger girl felt a bit bad for Blake. "Seems to be more than what people say if you ask me."

Blake rolled her eyes. "What are you, some kind of shrink?"

Ruby giggled. "Well that is what I study, remember?"

That little reminder caused Blake to freeze for a second. "Oh, right. Forgot about that."

Now it was Ruby's turn to shrug. "So why do you really keep yourself hidden from everyone?"

Blake took a deep breath, better to say something or else Ruby would keep asking. "It's because of the fact that I'm a faunus. If you haven't noticed, people aren't that friendly to my kind. Same goes for Sun, except he is able to handle the discrimination better than I can."

Ruby started to feel bad for Blake again. "Well, if you ask me, I think that it's stupid that people think that way." Blake smiled and shook her head.

"The world isn't like that though Ruby. People are being brought up to hate, and nothing really changes. It's why I keep my true self a secret. Only you, Yang, Weiss and the rest of our friends know about me." Ruby felt glad to know that Blake trusted her with this. "Well, that should do it. Better than before, relatively speaking."

Ruby walked over to the mirror and agreed. "Yeah, should do nicely for tonight." Ruby turned back towards Blake, took a step forward and embraced her in a big hug. "And just remember that even though there are jerks out there, you still have me, Yang, and everyone else in our little band of misfits that care." Ruby let go of Blake, who was smiling at that point, and turned to leave. "See ya Blake." The smaller girl waved and started to head back to her room.

* * *

 **AN: Hey, it's another update! Don't really have much to say this time around. Thanks for reading, you know all that good stuffs. Reviews are welcomed but not required, all that fun jazz. Thanks for sticking around for another chapter!**


	8. Hole in my Heart

**AN: *Looks at date and time, realizes he's late posting the chapter***

 **Ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuu**

 ***Scrambles to get things posted***

* * *

Ruby eventually made her way back to her dorm, hoping that Weiss would like the way she was dressed. Her mind kept running all over the place with anxiety, and she was visibly nervous. She entered her building and shook her head, trying to banish the thought from her mind. Once she made it up to her room, she fished out her key and unlocked the room. When she walked in, she did not expect to walk in on Weiss. Ruby froze at what she saw.

There was Weiss, facing the window, with her entire upper half completely naked. From where Ruby was standing, the light that was shining on Weiss gave her a kinda majestic feel. Ruby was standing there completely frozen, unable to do anything but stare. She could feel heat rising through her body, feelings she hadn't felt in quite a while.

Eventually she snapped back to reality and quickly walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

When Weiss heard the door shut, she feared that someone had opened the door while she was changing. So she quickly threw the rest of her outfit on and checked to see if anyone was at the door still. She opened the door and noticed that Ruby was sitting by the door, looking like she just got the crap scared out of her. Ruby looked up at Weiss and seemed to panic inside of herself.

"Ruby, was that you who slammed the door shut?" Ruby simply looked down at her feet and nodded. Weiss sighed and picked Ruby up. "Ruby, you always do this. How come you don't tell me why you keep doing this?" Weiss said as she pulled Ruby back into the room and shut the door.

"I...I just..." Weiss crossed her arms and stood over Ruby who was sitting at the couch. "...look I don't want to talk about that ok?" Ruby was debating on heading outside for a few minutes to take a break, but she didn't want to have to talk about even more stuff Weiss, especially right at that moment in time.

Weiss shook her head. "One of these days, you are going to tell me what it is ok?" Ruby nodded, looking down at her lap. "You look great by the way." Weiss wanted to cheer Ruby up, and since she knew Ruby was really nervous about tonight, she figured that a compliment would go a long way. Her assumption was correct as Ruby got noticeably happier than she just was.

"You really think so?" Ruby asked, getting some of that old cheer back into her voice.

"Definitely, though I think you need to do some makeup because that would help even more." Weiss grabbed Ruby's hand and pulled her over to the desk. "Sit still, this will only take 5 minutes." Weiss decided to put on some eye shadow on Ruby to emphasize her silver eyes and dark colored hair. When she was finished she asked Ruby how it looked, to which Ruby was amazed at how beautiful she looked.

"Thanks Weiss. Oh and I didn't mention this yet, but you look really amazing yourself." Weiss smiled, she enjoyed when someone complimented her, but she felt it was worth more coming from Ruby, a slight red displaying itself across her cheeks.

"Thanks."

* * *

Weiss parents showed up a few minutes later, and the four of them went out to a nice restaurant. The waiter took their order and once he left, the conversation started. "Well now, I do believe our waiter is a bit, eccentric." Weiss mother started.

"Yes, if I had to guess, I would say that he might be gay." Her father commented afterwards.

"Father!" Weiss yelped, though quiet enough to not cause a scene.

"Oh relax Weiss, there's nothing wrong with that. If that is what the man is, then let the man be that way." Ruby secretly let out a sigh of relief. She was glad that she didn't have to worry about Weiss family being homophobic. "Please, would you really think that I would be closed minded?"

"Well, you know how some people are these days, they just don't seem to understand that they're people, just like all of us here," Weiss' mother explained. "We really can't blame her for jumping to those conclusions, Jacques."

"Well, Willow, when you're right, you're right." Weiss' father conceded.

"So Ruby, we never really got to know that much about you. Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?" Weiss' mother asked Ruby.

"Well, I study Psychology."

Weiss Father seemed impressed. "Psychology is an interesting subject. And how are your academics if you don't mind me asking?" Ruby seemed to realize she was going to become bombarded by questions.

"Well, I have gotten straight A's all throughout high school, and so far that has continued here at Signal." Ruby smiled, she always liked how smart she was.

"Yes, now if only your sister could adopt some of those traits herself." Ruby sighed and shook her head.

"A sister? Tell us a bit about her." Weiss' mother asked.

"Half-sister, actually," Ruby elaborated. "My sister Yang is two years older than me, and she took a year off of before starting school to raise some money for herself. Which is why we are both starting college now."

Weiss father seemed to note some mathematical error in the statement. "Well if she is two years ahead of you in age, then how come you two are starting the same year, even with her taking a year off?" He asked.

By this time, their food had arrived. Ruby was handed her dish and before she ate she explained what she meant to Weiss father. "Well, I'm only 17 years old. I was moved ahead a year before high school and so that's why we are starting together."

Now Weiss' parents were really impressed. "Oh wow, that is truly amazing. I'm sure your parents would be proud." Weiss' mother stated.

"Yeah, my Dad really is proud of me that I've been able to accomplish so much in my life," Ruby replied.

"Much like I assume your Mother is also very proud of you as well," Weiss' mother continued.

As soon as Ruby heard that, she felt herself freeze up. She started to remember her mother. Ruby never really got over losing, and so she started to fall into that spell of sadness and loss over it.

"Tell us child, what exactly do your parents do?" Weiss' father brought up her parents again.

Ruby could feel herself falling apart again. "Um, excuse me, please," Ruby said, her voice wavering a little bit as she stood up and walked off, not wanting to cause a scene.

Weiss and her parents were confused as to what just happened. "Is everything ok with her?" Weiss father asked. "Maybe you should go check on her Weiss." Weiss took the thought and decided that she should see what is up with Ruby.

Ruby quickly got into the bathroom, and went over to the mirror. Just as she got over there, she noticed her body was shaking, and she could see her eyes start to tear up. She kept thinking that now isn't the time to let myself feel this way. She looked at the side of the mirror and noticed that Weiss had just entered the room after her. "You ok Ruby?" Ruby couldn't hold it in any longer. She started to cry, and Weiss came over to her and started to rub her back. "Hey, hey, what's wrong Ruby?" Ruby grabbed a paper towel and put it on Weiss' shoulder so she could cry on it without getting any makeup on her nice clothes. Weiss decided to drop it for now and just wait for Ruby to feel better. Eventually Ruby calmed down, and Weiss then helped Ruby clean off the makeup, because it got ruined. "You feeling better?" Ruby nodded, still feeling out of it, but much better compared to before.

"Can you not talk about my mother again?" Weiss realized that was the reason Ruby got upset, and so she nodded.

"I'll give you a minute by yourself ok?" Ruby just nodded, and so Weiss left to return to the table.

Once Weiss had returned, her parents asked what the matter was. When Weiss said that she was fine, but to not bring up her mother again, they seemed to understand. After a minute, Ruby came back out, feeling better than before. The makeup she had on was gone, and her eyes seemed to be red, showing that she had been crying while she was away. Yet the rest of their evening went on smoothly. After they finished, Ruby was dropped back off at her room. Weiss went up with her to say goodbye, and do a last minute check to see if she had everything. Before she left though, she did say goodbye to Ruby and gave her a hug. "I had a good time tonight. And I hope you feel better."

"Thanks Weiss."

Once they had let go of each other, Weiss left to go home. On the way out she noticed Yang walk in, so she decided to ask her something really quick. "Hey Yang, quick question for you." Yang stopped walking and looked at Weiss. "Earlier today, Ruby got really upset when my parents asked her what her parents did for a living. Can you explain to me why she got as upset as she did?" Yang let out a long breath, not sure how to explain it to Weiss.

"Well, I don't know how exactly to say this in an elegant way. Honestly Ruby should be explaining it to you, and she is going to be upset that you came to me and asked instead of her."

Weiss interrupted Yang for a second. "Well, based off of what I saw earlier, I didn't think that would be the best thing to do."

Yang shrugged. "You're probably right." Yang paused for a second. "Look, her Mom, she died about 9 years ago. Killed by a truck driver in a head on collision." Weiss stood there, wide-eyed and shocked.

"That's terrible." It was the only thing Weiss could mutter.

"I guess she just never got over it. Anyway, I guess I should check on Ruby then. You have a good break." And Yang just walked away. Weiss stood there in shock for a few seconds more, then even she made her way out the door.

Yang had gone up to Ruby's room to check on her after hearing how she had gotten upset earlier in the day. "Hey sis, what's up?" Yang opened the unlocked door and saw her sister staring out the window.

Ruby turned to see it was Yang and sighed. "Did Weiss tell you about what happened?" Yang nodded, and walked over to her. "I guess that means she knows huh." Ruby turned back towards the window.

Yang had pulled up a chair and sat next to her. "Yeah, I figured it would be easier if I said it instead of you. Gave her the version of the story we agreed to tell people. How you feeling?" Yang asked as she entered big sister mode, and started to comfort Ruby.

"I guess I'm feeling better than I thought I would be."

Yang was surprised by that. "Really? It usually takes you much longer to get back to your happy self."

"I think I know why that is," Ruby sighed. "Can I tell you something Yang?"

"Sure what is it?"

"Have you ever had that feeling, that even though someone you really cared about is gone, that the hole they left in your heart was suddenly filled by someone else?"

Yang looked confused. "You mean like when someone comes around and makes you feel good again?"

Ruby shook her head. "No, I mean, when someone makes you feel whole again. Gives you a reason to love, smile, be happy again."

Yang suddenly understood what she meant. "You think you might have found someone to love?"

Ruby didn't know if she should tell the whole truth at this point. "Maybe, I still need to think about it." Ruby looked back out of the window, thinking of how beautiful the view looked, and then she thought that there was only one thing more beautiful than the view from her window.

Weiss Schnee.

* * *

 **AN: Well I'm sorry for getting this out way later than I normally would. I've been really busty with preparations for my wedding, and all that. On the bright side, I'm pretty sure my fiance and I decided in where we are living once we are married and we have an apartment lined up.**

 **Anyway, you guys who read the story before know what it's coming up next. So be ready for some stupidity on Ruby's part.**

 **Thanks for keeping up with this, feel free to review at your own discretion, and I will see you next time!**


	9. Night Out on the Town

Blake always enjoyed her quiet time that she got in the dorm room when Yang wasn't around. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate her roommate being around, she just liked when she was able to relax on her own without the constant noise of her roommates music or the tv shows she'd be watching, usually sports related stuff.

In truth, the black haired girl was growing accustomed to the noise that came from Yang's side of the room. It almost felt akin to things such as a fan or video that you can just listen to and not really give much thought. Not that she didn't consider Yang to be background noise, just the atmosphere the two of them shared while in the dorm together. It was quiet, peaceful, something that Blake had hoped for.

Hearing the door opened, Yang was expecting to see her roommates bubbly smile and charm emanate as the blonde walked in, talking on the phone with someone.

"Really? You know, you're gonna have to give me a better damn excuse than that one," Yang voiced, clearly irritated at whomever she was talking over the phone with. "Don't have one? I fuckin' thought so. Next time you wanna call me, do me the courtesy of at least pretending to give a shit about me and my life." An instant later, the blonde threw her phone into her bed after disconnecting the call.

Hearing the venom in Yang's voice, Blake was pretty easily shocked by what she had just heard. "Um, Yang?" Blake meekly asked, hoping it wouldn't provoke the blonde any further.

"Yes, I am in a bad mood right now," Yang answered, already assuming what questions Blake would ask. "I will be fine after a little bit, no I do NOT want to talk about that, and please, don't ask me about it."

Taking the hint, Blake held her hands up defensively, before turning back to her book. "Alright, well, if you need anything, or want to change your mind. Just let me know."

"Sure," Yang grunted out as she flopped onto her bed and wrapped a pair of headphones around her ears, blasting the music so loudly that Blake could hear it from the other side of the room.

' _Jeez, what's gotten into her?_ ' Blake asked herself. ' _Who was that person on the other end of the phone?_ '

After a little bit of time had passed in uncomfortable silence, Blake noticed Yang stand up. "I'm going to meet up with Ruby, then I'm going out for the night. Don't bother waiting up for me," Yang grumbled, loud enough that Blake could hear her.

Blake realized she was mostly doing that so that her roommate could have some peace of mind knowing where she was, especially if she was this upset about something. "Alright, if you need me to come pick you up-"

"Yeah, sure thing, mom," Yang spat out, her tone sounding filled with anger.

"Right, sorry," Blake replied, clearly knowing she struck some kind of nerve. She could only watch as Yang walked out the door, before turning back to her own work. Though a lingering thought still remained in the back of her mind. ' _Who caused you to feel this much hatred and anger?_ '

* * *

Ruby had plenty of time to think about things. She didn't know how she felt about Weiss, but she did know that if it wasn't sorted out soon, then things would end badly. She always seemed to have things end weirdly. It had only been about a week since she went to dinner with Weiss and her family, yet to her, it felt like an eternity.

Even in that singular week, Ruby had dealt with so many things from Weiss that she found adorable, cute, and outright attractive. From something as simple as getting her a cup of hot chocolate out of nowhere, to the two of them watching movies together, and Weiss inadvertently snuggling up to Ruby, these things came fairly quickly, and often left Ruby with even more questions than answers, and even more stress than she could've possibly imagined.

Ruby decided to take a few moments and get away from it all, so she decided to get some dinner. When she got to the dining hall, she saw Jaune hanging out with Nora's roommate, Pyrrha. She figured that they wouldn't mind if she sat with them, but decided to at least go over and make sure it was ok first. When she got close, Jaune looked over and saw her. He looked like it was ok for Ruby to join them, so Ruby went over to the table. "Hey Jaune, Pyrrha. What's up?"

Pyrrha looked at her and smiled. "Nothing much, we were just talking about our last class." Ruby quickly put the conversation on hold and grabbed some food. Once she made her way back, Pyrrha continued. "So me and Jaune were sitting in our Chemistry class, and the Professor decides, he is going to set off an explosion in the middle of the lecture. For science of course."

Ruby started to giggle. "Yeah, even though he seems crazy at times, Professor Torchwick is a really neat guy. Does have a badass look to him as well."

Pyrrha nodded. "Though his habit of smoking isn't the best of habits to form."

Jaune stopped moving, as did Ruby. Jaune gave Pyrrha a look of warning. "You know, some people do that as a stress relief. Sometimes it's better to be smoking than to be doing something worse, don't you think?"

Pyrrha looked confused. "Jaune, no matter how you put it, it's a bad habit." Ruby just kept quiet, she was remembering back a few months ago, after she and Jaune broke up. She remembered herself smoking, even though she never wanted to do that in the first place. The first time stuck in her head like a virus, wriggling its way back up to the front of her memory.

"Pyrrha, sometimes it's better to just listen to the other sides point and leave it at that." Jaune was trying to discreetly tell Pyrrha to not talk about that in front of Ruby.

Pyrrha eventually took the hint, and decided to end it there. "Anyway, how are things going with you Ruby?" Ruby was still in a trance, she had been remembering the pain of dropping the habit, even after only being in it for a short period of time. With that came memories of Penny that she wanted buried. Smells, feelings, all these, good and bad, came flooding back to her like a tidal wave.

"Huh, oh yeah, things are going ok for me." Ruby noticed that she had finished her food, even though she didn't remember eating anything. "Look, I got places to be. Sorry to bother you guys, and thanks for letting me sit with you." Ruby got out of there and made her way back to her room. She felt like all the problems of the world were falling onto her within the same week. She sent Yang a message hoping to get to talk to her see if she would be able to help. Given that it's a Friday though, she didn't have her hopes up.

Ruby was certainly surprised to see that Yang had in fact decided to help her out, seeing as how Ruby had been down as of late. Yang walked over to her and the first thing she did was hug her sister. "What's going on now?"

Ruby sighed and sat on the couch. "Ugh, Nora's roommate Pyrrha inadvertently dredged up memories I was hoping would stay buried. You know, Penny related memories." Yang sighed, she knew that in this state, Ruby was bound to be easily upset by any sort of comments. She wrapped her arms around Ruby and let her younger sister melt into the embrace, allowing her sister to quietly calm down.

"Ruby, while I know that is upsetting to have to hear, that isn't the only reason why you are upset is it?" Yang always could tell when there was something else going on that was causing Ruby to be the way she was.

"Fine, I still don't know what to make of these damn emotions of mine. It's like, one minute I feel like I know what to think, and the next, I don't." Ruby rolled over on the couch and laid down on it.

Yang sat down on the floor right next to Ruby. "Look, you need to take a few moments to just relax, you need to not think about this stuff for a night. Which is why, you and I are gonna be going out partying tonight."

Ruby rolled her eyes, though Yang didn't take note of that. "Yang, seriously? I don't want to party."

"You need to not think about this. Do you have any other ways of doing that?" Ruby was about to answer, when she realized, she didn't have an answer to give her. Yang smirked. "Thought so. Now put on something nice and get yourself ready. Tonight, we party like rockstars."

Ruby unwillingly got up off the couch. "Ugh, fine."

"C'mon, Rubes, where's your funtime excitement? I know you can be more enthusiastic than that."

"Just get what you need and let's get going," Ruby complained. "Hopefully I don't end up drinking while we're out there. Like I need another damn sword to pretty much fall upon."

* * *

Ruby took a few moments to get into something 'appropriate' for the night out on the town. She didn't really wear anything flashy or slutty, but just something nice, a pair of blue jeans and a slightly dressy shirt. Yang on the other hand, was out to have a good time, short shorts, a tanktop and a flannel shirt was all Yang needed.

"Ruby you really need to put more effort into this." Yang said as the two of them were walking through town. "Be excited, be enthusiastic. It's gonna be your first house party of college, where's your cheering?"

"Not that I care about this to begin with," Ruby rebuked after taking a puff of her vape. They turned a corner and walked down one of the side streets. "Where are we even going?"

Yang looked at her sister. "There's this guy in my one class who throws the best parties in the town. Just so happens to be a nice guy. Now hurry up, I need to get something in my system already."

That was when Ruby first noticed how tense Yang looked. "Um, you ok?"

"Of course I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" Yang asked, a little bit snappier than she normally would answer.

"You don't sound very fine to me," Ruby questioned looking up to see her sister's expression, an expression that clearly showed that Yang was mad about something. "In fact, you look like you wanna deck someone really hard right now."

"Ruby… " Yang said, doing her best not to lose her composure in front of her sister.

"Wait, let me guess, she called, and the two of you got into a bit of a fight," Ruby questioned, figuring that there was only a very small number of people who would get Yang this riled up.

"And which, she might you be referring to," Yang asked, harshly.

"Aunt Raven," Ruby answered flatly.

Yang simply turned towards Ruby and grabbed the collar of her shirt, a very furious face overflowing the normally cheerful expression. "We aren't speaking of her at all, so do me a favor. _Drop. It._ " Yang said emphasizing her last two words.

Ruby could only take a deep breath, knowing her sister wasn't actually upset at her. "Alright, now could you please let go of me?" Upon requesting, Yang did just that, and let go of Ruby's shirt, before beckoning her to continue on.

* * *

Yang and Ruby came upon a house that had it's music playing really loudly. "Here we are."

As they walked up to the door, someone came out to greet them. "Yang, nice to see you again. And I take it this is your sister." He said to Yang, not really doing much to introduce himself.

"Yeah, great to see you again, Flynt. And you're right, this is my little sister, Ruby. Oh and just be clear, if anyone does anything to her, I will be punching people." Ruby shook her head.

' _Typical Yang,_ ' she thought to herself as they walked into the party.

The three of them went inside and decided to join the party. Everyone was excited to see Yang, she seemed to know a bunch of the people there. Ruby pretty much just blended into the background, not really doing much. Suddenly Flynt came up to her. "You enjoying yourself?" He said.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I was pretty much dragged here by Yang, so I'm sorry if I don't seem to be having fun."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sure things will perk up for you at some point. By the way, you look thirsty, you want me to get you a drink?" Ruby didn't know what to say to the guy. She already felt bad enough not having fun, so she figured that she should be nice.

"Yeah that sounds nice." Ruby said back. He went to go get the drink, and she returned to the wall she was blending into.

After a few minutes he came back. "Here you go." Ruby grabbed the cup and took a sip out of it. She almost spit out the contents when she tasted the vodka in her mouth.

"Sorry, just wasn't expecting that is all."

"Nah, it's all good," Flynt replied. "Since you're Yang's sister I figured you would be able to handle the special stuff. If not then I can always take it back, it's perfectly fine."

Suddenly she thought that if she didn't drink it, then she would probably be considered rude, so she decided to keep drinking it. "No no, that's perfectly fine. I may not be Yang, but I can still handle this stuff. Trust me when I say, I've had worse than this."

"Sounds good," Flynt continued. "Still, if you feel like you're not having a good time, then let me know. I don't wanna leave people with a rotten taste in their mouth."

"Will do, er, Flynt, right?" Ruby asked, not wanting to sound offensive.

"That's right, Flynt Coal," Flynt responded. "Anyway, I gotta check on some of the other guests. I'll talk to you later." With that, Flynt walked over to another group of people to start conversing with them.

After she finished the drink, she started to feel weird. Ruby knew it didn't take that much to get her plastered, but she could already feel the effects on her body. Suddenly Ruby noticed something.

She saw another girl just hanging out by herself along the wall near the front entrance. So she decided to walk over and talk to her. Despite her dilapidated state, Ruby took note of the violet colored hair that she had. "Hey, you seem bored." Ruby said to the girl.

"Yeah, seems like it to me." She said.

"My name's Ruby," the shorter girl said. "You mind if I hang here for a few minutes?"

"Doesn't matter to me," the other girl replied. "I'm Nebula by the way."

"So I take it, the whole small talk of things like, you enjoying yourself is out of the question?"

Nebula confused at that. "Um, I guess?" Ruby leaned against the wall next to this stranger, taking another gulp of her drink in the process. "Are you, trying to flirt with me or something?" Ruby laughed, if she wasn't drinking she would have been silent instead. Then again, she wouldn't have been flirting with her in the first place.

"Depends on what you mean by that."

Nebula seemed weirded out by it all, yet she didn't seem to go away. "Well, I guess I mean that you are hitting on me. Even though we are both girls." Ruby turned her head so that their eyes met each other.

"And how does that change anything?"

The girl suddenly felt mesmerized by Ruby's gaze. The silver eyes seemed to pull her into a trance and make her more interested in Ruby. Eventually, Ruby decided to move her head forward and kiss the girl. No one was around and so nobody had seen what happened. When Ruby pulled back, the girl she kissed made a little moan, longing for some more. Both Ruby and this mysterious woman had been drinking as they could tell on the taste of each other's lips, yet they didn't care. Ruby was completely gone by this point, not being able to remember any of it. Suddenly Ruby decided that she wanted to leave, and she wanted to take this strange person back with her.

"Why don't we go back to my room?" Ruby said quietly into her ear. The girl quickly nodded and the two of them left to go back to Ruby's room.

* * *

 **AN: Well, I did warn you that Ruby would be doing a stupid. For those of you that read the original, you'll know that things have obviously changed. For starters, the girl Ruby seduces is no longer just some unnamed NPC, as is the person who is hosting the party. It's great when you do have more characters to work with.**

 **You'll also note that we got some interesting development for our favorite blonde! And for those of you who think that Yang's reaction to Ruby bringing it up was over the line, think about it from this perspective. Ruby knew that bringing it up was going to set off more than a few nerves with her sister, yet she did it anyway. She also knew that Yang wouldn't intentionally hurt her for bringing it up, but she needed to know what it was that had Yang so upset, in order to not step on any toes herself.**

 **In any case, as always, reviews are greatly appreciated, though they are not required. I always enjoy hearing what you guys have to say about this story, and I can't wait to show you what I have in store next time!**


	10. Cracks

Blake entered her room to see that Yang was not there, so she sighed. "Probably out partying again. At least I get some peace for a little while." Blake walked over to her bed and grabbed a book from the shelf that sat next to it. Sitting down peacefully on her bed, she was content with the quiet comfort away from her loud and rambunctious roommate, so she took the time to catch up on some reading. Only a few minutes in, and she heard the door open, with Yang popping inside. Blake rolled her eyes, she should have known that would end up happening to her. "Let me guess, you were out partying?" Blake asked Yang, who was clearly drunk, if her dishevelled appearance was anything to go off of.

"Yeah...hic… took Ruby out because she's been depressed for a few days now. Drinking is fun." Yang was slurring her speech because of the copious amounts of alcohol running through her system.

Blake stood up and walked over to Yang, who at this point was lying down in her bed. "So I take it Ruby is also back in her room?"

"I dunno." Yang quickly replied, her mouth talking before her brain could process the question.

Blake wasn't liking where this was going, and she showed it in her more serious tone. "What do you mean by 'I dunno'?" Blake was hoping that Yang was just messing around, but wouldn't be surprised if it ended badly.

"I mean I think she was still there," Yang poorly explained as her body was swaying back and forth, even though she was lying down. "I had sooooooooooooooooooOOOOOooooo much to drink though, so I feel incre… credi… incrdibler… whatever."

Blake placed her face into both of her palms. "You mean to tell me, that you left your little sister, at a party, where she doesn't know anybody at all, and could easily get taken advantage of?" Blake was starting to get mad at Yang's inattentiveness.

By that point in time, the blonde was completely unconscious, so Yang wasn't going to be of any help and Blake knew it. Fortunately she knew enough of what was going on to think of something. So she quickly grabbed a few things and called up Weiss. "Come on, pick up." Blake said as she hurried out of her dorm and over to Weiss'.

"Hello?" Finally Weiss picked up.

"Weiss, it's Blake. We got a problem."

"What do you mean by that?" Blake was trying to walk as fast as possible and talk at the same time, which she noted wasn't easy.

"Yang decided to take Ruby out to a party and now she just abandoned her there. Grab Ruby's keys and meet me outside your building."

Now Weiss started to get flustered. "YANG DID WHAT NOW?! Of all the utter ridiculous things that Yang could have pulled, this is by far the worst!" Weiss was quickly grabbing a few things, remembering to grab Ruby's car keys.

"Look, just hurry up, I want to get there as fast as possible." Blake said over the phone, she hung up and waited outside for Weiss to get there. Weiss eventually made it down and the two of them took off towards Ruby's car.

* * *

Unknown the to them though, was the fact that Ruby was on her way back to her room at that point. About two minutes after Weiss and Blake left, she was entering her dorm building, giggling like a child and wobbling like crazy. Nebula wasn't any better, but no one took notice, and the two of them eventually made it into their room. As they entered the room Ruby started to make out with the girl, eventually leading her over to the couch. She lay on top of the woman and was taking control of the moment.

"Oh man, I've never done something like this before," Nebula stated.

"What, have a wild night with someone?" Ruby asked seductively. She was still slurring her words because of the alcohol, but that was something neither of them cared about.

"I've had my share of those, just not with a woman before," Nebula explained, feeling Ruby start to pull her shirt up and over her shoulders. Nebula watched as Ruby pulled her own shirt off and the two of them decided to just lay there, skin against skin. Their lips continued to connect with each other, and Ruby started to let her hands explore, removing the last thing covering Nebula's chest.

"You ready for this?" Ruby asked, whispering her question into Nebula's ear.

"Oh god yes," Nebula moaned as she felt Ruby's hand slide below her waist. "Yes, please I need this!"

Ruby smirked, feeling more than happy to oblige.

* * *

About ten minutes after Blake and Weiss left Weiss' dorm, they found the place where Yang and Ruby went to the party. They parked the car and walked over to the door. When they got there, they were greeted by Flynt.

"Evening ladies, you wanna come inside and enjoy-"

"Look, we aren't here to party. We're here to find our friend. Her name is Ruby and she was here with her sister Yang." Blake said immediately getting to the point.

"Ah, ok," Flynt said, understanding why Blake cut him off. "Look, your friend left about 20 minutes ago."

Blake gave the guy a death stare. "So she just walked out on her own?"

"Hey, she was walking with some other chick, don't know who but she didn't leave alone. Mentioned something about going back to her room." Blake turned to Weiss, who was just as surprised as she was. They turned away and went back to the car, immediately rushing over to their dorm.

"So, what do you think is going on?" Blake asked.

"I haven't the slightest clue as to what this could be," Weiss replied, tired of dealing with this. "Let's just get back to the room and we can figure out what's going on from there."

"And if they're, you know, having sex?"

"That's not something I want to think about, so I won't."

"You might want to be aware that something like that could actually be a thing," Blake explained, as the car was parked. "If so, then Ruby might swing that way."

"And it very well could, but for now, I'm gonna wait and see what actually does come of this," Weiss replied as they got out of the car and walked over to Weiss' dorm room. In the back of her mind though, Weiss was very well aware that what Blake had suggested was probably the exact thing that was going on. Just the thought of that hurt Weiss. ' _Why do you feel so upset by this? It's Ruby's life, I can't interfere with this no matter how much I don't want it to happen… wait… what did I just say?_ '

When they got there, Weiss seemed to hear some kind of weird noises coming from the room. ' _Oh god no…_ ' The white haired woman thought to herself.

Weiss fished out her key and put it into the lock. What she saw when she opened the door was something that neither Weiss or Blake expected. They saw Ruby on top of the girl she walked back with, making out with her, both of the topless, and with one of Ruby's hands down the girl's skirt. Weiss froze with a shocked look on her face, and Blake simply gawked at the scene confused as well. The girl under Ruby suddenly noticed that there were people staring at them. "Oh god, what the hell?"

Ruby seemed confused, then she turned her head towards the door. She saw that Weiss and Blake were standing there and she froze up, all the color in her face just faded away. "Oh god."

Suddenly Ruby burst her way over to the trashcan and threw up. Right at that moment, Nora walked by, and she saw Ruby throwing up. Nora turned away and went back to her room.

The girl that Ruby had with her decided to leave, taking a few moments to put her top back together, however Weiss stopped her before she left. "One question. Did you seduce her?"

Nebula shook her head. "She was the one who convinced me."

Weiss seemed surprised, and she let the girl go on her way. "Right, sorry for ruining your evening," Weiss replied as the other girl walked still had her face in the trashcan, moaning and feeling sick. Blake looked at Weiss, and they walked into the room, realizing that they had to take care of her for the night. Weiss walked over to Ruby and started to rub her back, while Blake gathered some clean clothes for her to put on. They spent the entire night listening to Ruby throw up

* * *

The next morning Weiss and Blake woke up tired, yet fresh enough to function. Ruby on the other hand, was experiencing a hangover. Weiss decided to let Ruby have a piece of her mind, so she gestured to Blake to follow her lead. Weiss grabbed two of her heaviest books, laid one next to Ruby's head, and then dropped the other one on top of it. The slam woke Ruby up, and made her curl up into a ball. "Ugh, what the hell?" It was the only thing that Ruby could manage to say.

"Well good morning, Ruby. It's nice to see you're awake. Come on out of bed." Weiss pulled the covers off of Ruby and that caused the younger girl to complain even more.

Blake then decided to get in on the action. She plopped down next to Ruby and started to tickle her. Ruby started to convulse and was begging Blake to stop. The only thing that did stop Blake was Ruby getting up and running to the bathroom to throw up.

Weiss went over and made sure she was ok, leaving Blake to let Yang in, who decided to come over to check on her sister. "You ok, Ruby?" Weiss asked, she was being more serious now, actually concerned over Ruby's state of well being.

"Ugh, my head hurts, my stomach feels like it's turning inside out, every noise is like a sonic boom going off next to my ear. Plus I don't remember anything that happened last night, so I'm feeling like something bad happened."

Weiss nodded at that. "Yeah, something did happen, Blake and I walked into our room with you on top of some random chick, making out with her and...doing things with your hand inside her skirt." Ruby heard that, and she threw up again.

"Did that really happen?" Ruby asked, turning a bit to look at Weiss' face.

Weiss was holding Ruby's hair back so she didn't get any puke on it. "Yeah. Look if you don't want to talk about it then that's fine, just know that if you are in fact, a lesbian, then that's up to you."

Ruby seemed to cheer up a bit. "Thanks, Weiss, I needed to hear that. I'm sorry I haven't told you till now."

Weiss shrugged. "It's ok. I can see why you would want to keep it a secret. And I assume that is why you always leave the room when I get changed huh." Ruby nodded, she felt a bit ashamed of the whole thing that happened.

"God I feel like my stomach is starting a revolution."

Weiss laughed. "Well that's what happens when you drink, Ruby. Think about it." Ruby simply rested her head against the seat of the toilet, waiting for her body to stop hating her again. "So... "

"Yes?" Ruby groaned.

"You know not to sound like a jerk or anything, but I kinda wish you had told me about you being a lesbian," Weiss said, rubbing Ruby's back a bit more. "Also, that you vape."

"How did you find that part out?" Ruby asked.

"You left it on your desk the one day and I noticed it," Weiss replied. "Not that I care, it's your choices after all, but why do you do that in the first place, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Can we not talk about this?" Ruby asked. "I got drunk last night to not think about those things again, I don't wanna do that now."

Weiss knew from what Ruby said just now, that what she was referring to was some painful memories. "Oh, sorry, didn't mean to overstep myself."

"It's fine," Ruby continued. "I appreciate the concern though."

"Of course, as I said countless times before, it's what friends do for each other."

* * *

 **AN: Well, things worked out for the better? Still, Ruby getting it on with Weiss walking in on it, yeah, Weiss is starting to feel things, even if she doesn't realize it just yet. Weiss is gonna have some soul searching to do real soon, she is gonna have to soon ask questions on how she truly feels for her roommate.**

 **In other news, I'm literally getting married next weekend. The next time I update this, I'll literally be doing so from the tail end of my honeymoon. After that I'll be getting back to work on the next string of chapters. For those of you who read the story before, the New Years arc is coming up soon. And we all know what that means.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading, I really appreciate everyone who has been following and reading this story. All of the reviews, and all the feedback, both positive and negative. Thank you to everyone, and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!**


	11. These Feelings I Have

"So, Ruby," Weiss said as she watched her roommate was getting the last of her belongings together for the day. "Did you hear about this art expo that the school is hosting later on today?"

Ruby looked up to her roommate, having not heard about what Weiss was referring to. "Really? Are you gonna go check it out?"

"I was planning on going later today, alas I don't have anyone to go to the event with," Weiss replied solemnly, sitting down on the couch in their dorm. She was already prepared for the day, just waiting for Ruby to finish up with her stuff before the two of them would head off to their morning class together. "It doesn't start till around 3 today, but it runs all the way until 7. The expo's gonna be up for the rest of the week too so if I don't get it today, then I'll get it another day, but it's just something I would've loved to go see."

"Well, why don't I go with you?" Ruby asked before popping open her medication and downing what she poured out into her hand.

' _OHMYGODPLEASESAYYES!... Wait, why was I thinking that again?_ ' The past few weeks, Weiss and Ruby had grown closer, both as friends, and beyond that. It was leading to questions that started to dig themselves up in Weiss' mind, and she didn't have the answers to any of them. She would often catch herself thinking back to things that Ruby did, things that made her smile, made her feel a warmth that was unfamiliar to her. ' _Seriously why does this keep coming up? Brain what are you doing?_ '

"I mean, if you don't want to come with me, then that's entirely up to you," Weiss rambled, clearly trying to sound calmer than she normally did. Thankfully, it seemed Ruby didn't pick up on Weiss' tone sounding different than normal. "If you do, then I'll get you something in return."

Ruby just looked over to Weiss, her expression blank as she really had to understand why Weiss would think that she needed to buy her friendship at times. "Is that really necessary?"

"What?"

"Do you really feel as though you need to buy my friendship?" Ruby asked as bluntly as possible.

"What makes you think that I'm trying to do that?"

Ruby just shook her head and sat down next to Weiss. "Well, for one, you assume that I would look for something in return for going with you, when by now, you should know that I don't need anything from you in return."

Weis could see what Ruby meant, but past experience had told her plenty of times that people were always out for their own game when they tried to befriend her. Isolation had played havoc with her sometimes, and she didn't know that sometimes, people just didn't have an ulterior motive in mind. "Sorry, I shouldn't have assumed."

"It's fine, Weiss, but do know that I don't do these things for any reason than I just want to be your friend," Ruby said, wrapping her arm around Weiss' shoulders. "So to answer your question, I would love to go. I know how much you love all different kinds of art, plus it's a great chance for me to get out of our room. I've been crammed in textbooks for the past two weeks preparing for that exam my Uncle Qrow gave us last week."

"Ah yes, that one," Weiss remembered, though her mind was enveloped with that feeling of warmth once more. "I still can't believe your Uncle is the professor for that class. Didn't he show up to class that day and start drinking almost immediately?"

Ruby put some thought into what Weiss said as she stood up and grabbed her bag. "Oh that? Yeah, he keeps a thing of coffee in that flask. Says that the act of drinking from that helps him out. Though if you ask me, I think it might be one of those spiked coffee drinks on occasion. Something for him to take the edge off. Usually he breaks those out as it would get later into the semester."

Weiss stood up and grabbed her backpack from in front of her, before a thought crossed her mind. "Interesting, so should we need to worry about your Uncle showing up to class drunk one of these days?" As she asked the question, Weiss walked over to her desk and opened up one of the drawers, pulling her sketchpad out and swiftly putting it into her bag. Once that was done, the two of them started to walk to class together.

"Well, maybe not belligerent drunk," Ruby conceded. She thought back to a couple of times when she saw her Uncle completely gone because of the sauce. "Trust me, if he was drunk, you'd know. I've seen him drunk so much already, he's gotten nowhere near it so far."

"That's good to know," Weiss replied.

As the two of them walked across campus, the pair talked about most anything that came to mind. It was still warm enough for people to be hanging out outside with their friends, playing catch together before they went off to classes themselves. To see people in such a good mood, it was both endearing and upsetting to the white haired girl. Still, they had a class to get to, so no time to stop and relax beforehand.

"So, when do you want to meet up for this art expo?" Ruby asked Weiss during their journey across campus.

"I suppose we could meet up after classes at 4 at the art building, does that work?" Weiss questioned.

Ruby ran up in front of Weiss, full of excitement. "I think that sounds like a great idea! This is gonna be so much fun, ooh I can't wait for it."

"Ruby, calm down, I don't want to be left behind again," Weiss said.

"Oh lighten up, it's not like anything bad is going to hap-" That's all Ruby could get out before she was ran over. One of the other students was running in her direction, clearly not knowing that Ruby was in the pathway to impact. Before either Ruby or Weiss could figure out what was going on, Ruby's body got slammed into, and she made a sickening impact with the concrete walkway below her, the back of her head crashing down hard.

"OH MY GOD, RUBY!" Weiss shouted as she saw the impact happen right in front of her. She ran up to her roommate and checked to see if she was alright, noticing that Ruby was unconscious. "Ruby? Ruby?!"

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't see where I was going, and…" The other student said, trying to explain his side of the story.

Weiss was on the verge of blowing a gasket at this guy, but all processes were blocked out by the fact that Ruby was hurt. She didn't even notice a crowd of people were coming over to see what had happened, some of them pulling out their phones and calling campus security to get some help over there.

She wasn't aware of how long time went by, everything happened in a blur. One moment, she was kneeling next to Ruby, checking to make sure she was ok, the next, she was watching as the smaller redhead was getting loaded into the back of an ambulance, with Qrow going along with them. Weiss could only watch as Ruby pulled away, and she was left there all alone, starstruck and unable to think clearly anymore.

' _Please be ok_ ,' Weiss thought to herself as she watch the ambulance pulled away. ' _I can't lose you_.'

* * *

A few hours later, Ruby woke up in the hospital with a massive headache, not even knowing what had happened to her in the hours prior. She looked up to see Yang standing over her looking like she was very concerned. Ruby moaned as she tried to sit up, only to have Yang keep her laying down. "Ruby, don't you ever scare me like that again, do you hear me?" Yang was only being a big sister, Ruby understood that one.

"Yang, she just woke up and already you are giving her grief? Just be glad she is alright," Ruby noticed that Weiss was also there, as well as Blake and her Uncle Qrow. She failed to notice, that Weiss looked like she had spent hours crying beforehand.

"Ugh, what happened?" Ruby groggily asked.

Qrow walked up to Ruby. "Someone accidentally turned you into a human bowling pin. You got knocked to the ground, hit your head off the concrete. Fortunately it's just a concussion, so the doctors are keeping you here overnight to check on you, make sure you're cleared for leaving tomorrow morning. Since I still have classes to teach, your friend Blake volunteered to drive you back to campus tomorrow afternoon, once all the paperwork is done."

Ruby started to remember what had led up to the moment she got hit. "Never thought I'd live to see the day I'd get run over by someone and knocked unconscious."

It was at that point, that Weiss walked up to Ruby's bed and placed her hands around Ruby's shoulders and looked directly into her eyes. "Don't you dare think about doing something like that to me ever again, understand me, red?"

Yang and Blake looked over to each other, giving confused glances over Weiss' little outburst that they just saw.

"I promise that I won't go and let myself get hurt like that again, to the best of my ability. Now, I think you guys should go home and get some rest, I'll be fine here and I'll see you again tomorrow." Blake and Weiss were getting their stuff together to give Ruby some peace. Yang didn't want to leave though.

"Yang, Ruby will be fine here. Give her some time to rest ok? Besides, your Uncle said he'd volunteer to stick around overnight and keep her company." Weiss said. Ruby couldn't help but notice that Weiss seemed to be very concerned with her health, but didn't bother to take any note of it. Eventually even Yang got her stuff together and the three of them left Ruby to sleep.

"You certainly managed to pick up some great friends so far, kiddo," Uncle Qrow stated, watching the door after the other three girls walked out of the room.

"Yeah, I certainly did," Ruby replied. "So am I allowed to go back to bed? I'm tired."

"We'll have to check with the doctors, but I don't see why you couldn't get a quick nap in before they arrive," Qrow chuckled, letting Ruby get some more rest before he took out his flask. Taking a couple of gulps, he whispered to himself after swallowing it's fiery contents. "I wonder how long it's gonna take her roommate to realize that there might be something going on between the two of them."

* * *

When Blake came by the next day to pick her up, Ruby felt like she was going to explode. She needed to talk to someone about her feelings for Weiss, and she knew Blake wouldn't say anything to anyone about it. So when they were in the car heading back to campus, Ruby brought it up to her. "Blake, can I tell you something without you saying anything about it to anyone?"

Blake nodded. "Yeah, what's on your mind?"

Ruby took a deep breath, and then sighed, letting it all out. She didn't know what to say now. "Well, you know how I am a lesbian right?" Blake nodded again. "So going off of that, there is someone I feel interested in, if you catch my drift."

"You mean you like this person." Blake had put it very bluntly.

"Yes, the only thing is, who this person is." Ruby took a deep breath, preparing herself for what she was about to say. "I'm attracted to Weiss." Right as Ruby said that, Blake had to brake the car for a traffic light that suddenly changed to red.

"Wait, what did you say?"

Ruby looked red in the face, and she looked down at her hands. "I fell for Weiss." The air hung still for a moment, before Blake started to drive again.

"Ruby, you know that things may not work out between you two right? She might not even swing that way." Ruby nodded at Blake's words. Now it was Blake's turn to sigh. "Look, I really hope that things work out for you, Ruby, but just remember to not get your hopes up in case things don't work the way you want them to." Blake rubbed Ruby's head, causing Ruby to flail her arms around to get Blake off of her. "I promise I won't say anything about this, Ruby. It's the least I could do after yesterday. And if you need any help from me, then don't be afraid to ask for it."

Ruby smiled. "Thanks, Blake." Then she looked out the window, thinking of one person in particular.

* * *

 **AN: Well, I'm married now. I am feeling so great right now, and this past week has been absolutely spectacular. First things First, I want to give a huge thank you to my friends and fellow authors BurningPeace and TotoTail, who were a part of the wedding party itself. I couldn't have had such a great day without them, so thank you to you both. Side note go check out their works if you haven't already, also angelsixtwofive, who's place I'm posting from right as we speak.**

 **So, hopefully you guys enjoyed the changes to this chapter, don't have much else I can day as of right now, I'll be back with a proper AN next chapter.**


	12. Home Again

Ruby was packing up her car with Yang, getting ready for the Thanksgiving break. Since it wasn't a long break, there wasn't much need to pack a lot of stuff, just laundry and a few books to work on school stuff. So to Ruby, it was much easier to manage than when the beginning of the semester was around. Their Uncle Qrow would be happy that he had more room to sit this time around.

Ruby still was feeling the effects of the concussion she received the week prior due to some protesters on campus, but nonetheless, it didn't slow her down a bit. She was still as perky as ever, even though she was dealing with the issue of hiding her affection towards her roommate from everyone. The younger girl only managed to talk to Blake about it after she got out of the hospital, and she made Blake swear to her that she wouldn't tell anyone about it.

While they were packing, Yang kept asking Ruby if she was alright, the older sister still not being sure on whether Ruby should drive or not. Ruby however, insisted that she at least be given a chance to see how she would do with it. If she felt like she couldn't handle it, then she would hand the keys over and let her sister drive.

Weiss had already left for home so Ruby had already said her goodbyes to her, and Blake was leaving with Sun later in the day, so they already said goodbye to her. After waiting for their Uncle to finish his last class, the trio got into the car to head home for the first time in months. Qrow decided that it was a great time for him to get some sleep, so he had an eye mask over his face to get a nap in.

Ruby was excited to go home, though she didn't know what she was going to do. She decided to take the break to relax a bit, though she was still going to be talking to the place she worked at before she went to school. Ruby figured she would ask about working there during the winter break and the summer. She didn't doubt that they would let her back in, she was one of the best people they had.

They finally started to make their way out, noting that it would take a while for them to get home, and that it also started to rain a few minutes into the trip. "Talk about good timing, I'd hate to be out there in this right now."

Ruby nodded, then remembered that Blake was a Faunus, and one that didn't particularly like the water. "Imagine how Blake feels, she is after all part cat."

Yang's eyes widened at that, realizing that Blake wouldn't be happy about the rain at all. "Yikes, now that's a scary thought. Also isn't that a little racist?"

In response, Ruby immediately turned red as her shirt. "N-no oh my god no that's not what it was meant to be, please don't tell Blake that I didn't mean for it to sound like that oh my god I sound like a complete idiot right now!"

"Relax, I don't think she's going to take it that way," Yang replied, before she realized that so much has happened since coming to this school, meeting new people, crazy things that have gone on, and all different kinds of stuff. "Man, the past few months have been crazy don't you think?"

Ruby nodded after she took a few breaths to let her skin return to its natural tone. "Oh yeah, crazy doesn't even begin to describe it." Ruby was liking the rain, it seemed peaceful and cool, relaxing her.

"To think, all this crazy stuff went on, and you still manage to get straight A's in your classes," Yang teased, leaning her seat back a little bit. "Nerd."

Ruby just shook her head. "Well, unlike you, I don't have all the money you are getting to pay for school, so I got to rely on what I can to get by. If that means I got to study my butt off to get straight A's so that the school will help pay for my education, then I'll do just that." Ruby never liked admitting that she wasn't in the best financial position, or plenty of other things for that matter. She actually didn't talk about herself that often.

"That's what happens when you take a year in between to raise some money," Yang commented. "And I realize that is only proving your point even further, but seriously, you still need to loosen up a bit and have fun every so often." Ruby was quick to remember what happened the last time Yang suggested they do something fun.

"Oh yeah, what a wonderful idea, maybe next time, instead of getting to third base with someone random, I'll be able to go all the way! Maybe then I'll also have the taste of her in my mouth as I spend the entire next morning blowing chunks," Ruby deadpanned, referencing the previous debacle.

Yang chuckled. "Yeah, that was pretty funny. Of all the people to have that happen to them, it just had to be you Ruby." Ruby honestly wasn't to excited about remembering that specific memory.

"I still blame you for that by the way," Ruby countered. "You dragged me out there because of your spat with your mom."

Hearing that, Yang instantly stopped laughing. "Alright, you win this round, red."

Still, Ruby remembering that, made her also remember how she felt about Weiss. Realizing what she did, it made her feel like complete crap. It made her feel like she wouldn't be able to get what she wanted for fear of doing something that Weiss wouldn't like. So she just got even more stressed out again, which Yang noticed. "You ok Ruby?" Yang was in big sister mode, which at least Ruby knew meant she would take things seriously, but it also meant that Yang could tell that something was wrong with Ruby.

"It's just, remembering that, I felt like crap after that happened, and not from the puking. Although, I did feel like absolute garbage over that. I was, and actually am, interested in someone when that happened. So now, it's like if they find out about my feelings, I'm not sure they would want to be with me because of the things like that, moments where I lose control of myself."

Yang rubbed Ruby's shoulder, sighing. "Ruby, you shouldn't be stressing yourself out over this. If it's meant to happen, it will happen." Ruby had a hard time believing it though. "Look, if this person cares about you, then you shouldn't have to worry about a thing." Ruby started to feel better about the whole thing, though she was glad that when that part of the conversation was over, she didn't once mention that it was Weiss she was into.

The rest of the car ride was uneventful and the sisters got back home safe and sound. Their dad was out at work and wouldn't be back home for at least 15 minutes, which gave time for them to unpack really quick before he got home. Once they were finished bringing their stuff in, Ruby went up to her room to lay down for a bit before Taiyang got home. Once he got in, she briskly made her way down the stairs to see him. "DAD!" Ruby and Yang shouted, really happy to see him again. Seeing his daughters again, put a smile on the mans face.

"Girls, it's wonderful to see you again! It's a good thing I brought food back for dinner, so let's eat." They made their way to the kitchen to get some food in their stomach, and for the next few hours, they spent the entire time just talking to each other about how their time apart went.

Eventually Ruby felt tired, and so she went back up to her room to sleep. Yang stayed down with her dad to keep him company for a little while longer. "How is she doing, Yang?" Tai asked his eldest daughter.

Yang sighed. "Well, it'd be an understatement to say she has been doing perfectly fine. Overall she is handling things well, but I think that she still holds herself to secluded. Aside from the friends that we know, she doesn't talk to people that much unless she has to. And it doesn't help what happened last week. I think the only reason she is going to bed this early is because she is still feeling that concussions effects."

Yang's Uncle, who was also down at the table with them, nodded. "That would make sense, that kind of injury could have effects that last quite a while."

Yang looked back at him. "It's funny, she seems to have made a really close friend in her roommate over the time that she has been there, seeing as how she spends a lot of time with her."

Her dad was glad to hear that, nodding in approval. "That is wonderful to hear. Hopefully with time, she finds that same happiness in whomever she decides to be with. She really is a delicate person, and I would hate to see her become broken again." Taiyang said to Yang. "By the way, something you'll want to know about, guess who's apparently back in town."

"I don't know, you act like I should know this already," Yang shrugged, unprepared for what the answer was about to be.

"Raven moved back into town about 2 weeks ago."

Yang froze, the only movement she showed was to turn her gaze up to her father.

"You're kidding, right?" Qrow said, curious as to why she would do that. "I thought she was still overseas. Did she decide that she was homesick or something?"

"Apparently, she decided that it was time for her to retire, cash in big and settle down now before things, as she put it, got bad," Taiyang replied, opening up a bottle of whiskey and pouring one for himself, Qrow, and much to her surprise, Yang. "Though what it is that she's referring to, that's beyond me."

"You're letting Yang drink?" Qrow asked.

"I'm not gonna complain," Yang replied as she accepted the glass and joined her father for a drink.

"It's not like she hasn't had anything to drink before. Believe me, I'm not oblivious," Tai explained. "Besides, I know that both her and Ruby have gotten drunk out of their minds before, on numerous occasions, and Ruby's done worse. A little alcohol isn't going to be the end of the world as long as Yang is responsible with it."

"Thanks, dad," Yang smiled as she nursed her drink.

* * *

A few hours later, with the moon high in the sky, and everyone asleep peacefully, Ruby was in her room sleeping. She left her computer on and it started to make a noise, waking her up. She looked over at it and noticed that she left her video chat up, and that Weiss wanted to talk with her. Ruby reached over and accepted the call, slowly getting up and into a more decent position to talk. "Ugh, hey Weiss." Weiss' face finally appeared on the screen, and Ruby noted her room was also dark, and that Weiss looked like she was trying to sleep as well.

"Hey, I hope I didn't wake you, did I?" Ruby nodded, too tired to really think that much at the moment. "Oh, well if you want me to go then I-"

Ruby interrupted her. "It's fine Weiss. I'm guessing you couldn't sleep?" Weiss nodded. "Ok, I won't stay up for long, but I'll talk to you for a bit ok? I'm feeling really tired, and my head is still hurting a bit."

Weiss nodded, realizing that she didn't have long to talk, she got straight to something she wanted to mention. "Alright then I'll be sure to make this quick. So my parents are going to be out of town for a while during New Years, and my little brother is going with them. Since my older sister is in the military, she's not gonna be around either. The thing is, they don't want me to be spending it by myself, and I particularly don't want to go on this trip with them, which I mentioned to my parents. In the end, my father suggested that I should ask about spending the holiday with you, if that is alright with your father of course."

Ruby looked at Weiss and smiled. "Yeah, I'll ask my dad about it, but I'm sure you could stay here for a few days for the holiday. I'll ask him in the morning, and honestly I doubt he'd say no."

"Ok." Weiss responded. Now that she had asked, Weiss wanted to know how Ruby was doing, and she didn't want their conversation to end. "So… anyway... how are you feeling?"

Ruby thought about it for a second. "I'm feeling alright I guess. Head hurts from time to time, but that's expected. Other than that, I feel pretty good." Ruby let out a gigantic yawn that Weiss took as a hint that she wouldn't be able to keep Ruby's attention at all.

"Ok, well I can see that you are tired, and I don't want to keep you from your rest. You need that more than talking to me ok?"

Ruby smiled, she liked that Weiss was so concerned for her. "Yeah, thanks Weiss. I'll talk to you again tomorrow I promise."

Weiss smiled, feeling excited about the idea of getting to talk more with Ruby. "Ok, I'll hold you to that. Goodnight, Ruby."

"Goodnight Weiss." And then Ruby ended the call, this time turning off her computer entirely as well. She didn't want to have to be awoken again. Then she rolled back over in her bed and went back to sleep.

* * *

The next morning she woke up feeling better, walking down the stairs and into the kitchen for breakfast, noting that Yang and her dad were already awake and making food. "Morning sweetheart. Did you have a good sleep?"

Ruby smiled and nodded. Then she remembered what Weiss had said during the night. "Oh so my roommate wanted to know if I wanted to spend New Years with her. Whether it would be here or at her place I don't know yet, but I wanted to see if you were ok with it."

Her dad turned to face her, and he was smiling. Even Yang was happy about this, though she was smiling for different reasons. "I think that is a great idea. I would be more than ok with that."

Yang suddenly had an idea pop into her head. "Hey, why don't we invite everyone over here for a New Years Party. Just imagine it, you, me, Weiss, Jaune, Ren, Nora, my roommate Blake, her boyfriend Sun, and Pyrrha all spending New Years together, it would be just stellar." Ruby's eyes went wide and she started to act like a puppy dog. She turned back to her dad and she was going to ask if that was a good plan, but she didn't even need to ask.

"Of course, just as long as you two handle planning and hosting it. Oh, and you better not break anything." Ruby and Yang started to bounce around like two kids in a playground. The rest of their break went uneventful as Ruby and Yang sent out the word that there was going to be a party on New Years.

* * *

 **AN: Sorry for the delay in posting, still getting used to apartment life with the wife. If you guys remember what's coming up next, you guys know what kind of antics are coming up in the next set of chapters. Things happen, feelings get felt, all that fun shit. Oh boy will it be a grand ol' time.**

 **See y'all next chapter! And thank you to everyone for the congratulations, myself and my wife both appreciate all the kind words!**


	13. KISS Method

Time seemed to pass by quickly after Thanksgiving. Ruby and Yang returned to campus for a few weeks to finish up the semester, took their finals and went back home again for Winter break. It was the day after Christmas and Ruby was enjoying the new things she got. Her gifts were a few new games, some new clothes and of course a new book to read. Despite initial appearances, reading was always something she absolutely love doing.

Yang got new clothes from her Dad, and some booze from her Uncle. It was something of an inside joke between the two of them. Ruby and Yang came up with the idea that everyone should get Christmas gifts for each of their friends, nothing too fancy or expensive, but something nice and useful. In secret however, Ruby had another idea in mind. One that had a bit of a more, personal touch.

Over the months that have passed by since starting college, Ruby's affection to Weiss Schnee, her roommate, had grown a very significant amount. Ruby knew that she was going to have to tell Weiss about it at some point, but she was still afraid to actually say it. In short, she knew how risky it would be. It wasn't everyday that you come to find that you have affections for your college roommate, and that same someone had become one of her best friends.

So the redhead came up with a brilliant idea on how to tell her. Ruby decided that she was going to write a letter to Weiss. On New Years, she planned to give it to her, hoping that things would work out for the best. Deep down, Ruby was just worried that it would only cause a rift between the two of them, should Weiss not reciprocate her feelings. In the back of her head, Ruby knew that if she didn't say something, she would regret it.

Ruby spent a majority of her day working on it, before she went to work. Once her job as a waitress came to a close, she returned back home late at night thinking a lot about what it was she would tell Weiss in her letter. Writing it out however, was not as easy as it seemed. She couldn't think of what to write that would sound right, always thinking that all of the words she penned to the paper was not good enough.

A very frustrated Ruby spent hours tediously working on this one letter. This was something that should be simple to other people. Unfortunately because of who it was for, what it was about, and why she was writing it, Ruby just couldn't think of what to say.

"Urgh, this is just hopeless," Ruby said as she took the paper she was currently writing on, crumbled it up, and then threw it into the trash can. Looking into it, the trash can itself was starting to overflow with all of the failed attempts at what Ruby wanted to say beforehand.

Unbeknownst to Ruby, her sister Yang was awake, though the blonde wanted to be sleeping by that point. Yang walked over to Ruby's room, noticing that her sister's desk light was on. So the blonde groggily decided to check on her. When she walked over to her desk, she was a bit confused. Coming up behind the redhead, Yang touched Ruby's shoulder, startling her.

"Oh jesus, Yang. Don't do that to me ok?!" Ruby silently yelled after practically jumping out of her own skin. Yang walked over to the entrance of her sisters room and turned a light on, noticing how much paper that she had used in her attempts to write to Weiss.

"Jeez, what's with all the paper?" Ruby was quick to shoo Yang away when she noticed that.

"What?" Ruby questioned as she saw where her sister's gaze was fixated. "Hey! Stop it Yang! It's a personal thing ok? Now get out!" Ruby got up and pushed Yang out of her room.

"Ok, ok jeez. I was just asking." Yang looked like she was about to turn away, and Ruby was about to close her door, when the older sister remembered something. "Oh, something I was asked to mention. Weiss said she really needed to talk to you. She said it was important so when you get a sec, she wants you to video chat her."

Ruby was kinda surprised at what Yang said. She didn't think Weiss would be this adamant about getting in touch with her, though Ruby wasn't going to complain. She thought about slamming the door shut, before remembering that other people were asleep. After sitting down at her chair, she turned her computer on, and opened up her video chat. She noticed Weiss was online and called her.

Weiss seemed to answer pretty quickly, even given how late it was. "Hey, Ruby, whats up?"

Ruby began to go into a long winded explanation as to why she kept Weiss waiting. "Hey, I'm sorry I didn't get a hold of you sooner, I was at work, and then when I came back no one told me you called, and then I got distracted by christmas gifts for our friends and so I-"

Weiss cut off Ruby. "Hey hey hey, I'm not looking for a reason as to why you didn't answer, Yang told me you were at work. I do need to tell you something that's pretty important. Look, the flight I was supposed to be on was apparently cancelled, something about the airline having technical difficulties. They think I'm flying to somewhere else instead of to the airport by you. Since it's too late to change it, I talked to my parents about having you drive up to bring me down to your house, and then I would catch a flight back home from there.."

Ruby noticed an address pop up in the chat window. ' _Where in the heck is this place? This isn't any town that I've ever heard of._ '

"There's my address. If you want to check the amount of time it would take I would do so, cause from what I saw, it was a long ways away."

Ruby brought up google maps and put in her address and Weiss' address. Once the computer calculated the distance, she noticed how long of a drive it was and almost fell out of her chair. "Holy crap Weiss, that's a nine hour drive to your house on the major highways!" Ruby was surprised that Weiss lived so far away. Weiss on the other hand, seemed to be upset that Ruby wasn't liking the idea of such a long distance, though Ruby noticed and tried to backtrack a little. "Hey, I'm sure that it won't be such a big deal. We can think of something right?"

Weiss smiled. "I already asked your father about this, but it's up to you mostly. I suggested to him, and to my parents who agree with the idea, about you coming up on the 29th, staying the night up here with me and then the two of us drive back down on the 30th. Depending on when you leave to get here, you should be arriving just in time for dinner."

Ruby's face brightened at the idea. "Hell yeah I'll do that. I just got to call off of work on those two days but it won't be an issue. The boss loves me, and by that I mean he thinks I am one of the hardest working people he knows."

Weiss laughed, which made Ruby smile. "It's good that you have a job you are good at." Ruby smiled even harder.

"Yeah, that's always a good thing," Ruby replied. "So if I come up, does this mean that I get to meet your brother?"

Weiss sighed at the idea of Ruby meeting her brother. "Honestly, I hope not. He isn't exactly the greatest person in the world. My sister won't be there either, she's away on duty right now so she isn't available."

"Aww, man," Ruby pouted. "Even if he isn't nice, I still would've wanted to at least meet him for once. And not getting to even see your sister either is a bummer. I wanna meet the family!"

"Well like I said, my brother's off on a trip right now, and he won't be back home till about a week after we head down to your place," Weiss explained. After that, she looked off to the side, being notified of something that caught her attention. "Anyway, I have to get going, Ruby. I'll see you in a few days."

"Goodnight, Weiss." Ruby hung up the call, and turned back to what she was doing with the letter. Ruby felt good to have a break from this and take a moment to calm down. Getting herself a snack from the kitchen, Ruby started to compose herself, thankful that the cookie she grabbed was acting as comfort food. Eventually she returned to her room, sat down at her desk, took a deep breath, and began to relax.

She thought about how she felt for Weiss, and just gave up and wrote that. Ruby decided she wasn't going to worry about how she wrote it, but instead she would just be true and honest to her own feelings.

Of course, once she decided to keep it simple, it only took Ruby five minutes to completely write out the letter. "Wow, all that effort for something that could have been done in five minutes? You really know how to over complicate things, Ruby." Ruby put the letter in an envelope and left it in her desk drawer, deciding it was time to crash for the night.

* * *

 **AN: Apologies for the short chapter, but (as my friend Shadow Nightblade says), if it conveys what it needs to do in a shorter frame, then don't try to extend it and make things worse.  
**

 **Thank you guys all so very much for your continued support. And I'll see you all in the next chapter!**


	14. Know Yourself

Sunday December 29th

After a few days, Ruby was getting ready to head up to Weiss' house. Weiss had said that it was a very large house, one that some would consider a mansion, but Ruby didn't seem to care about the size of the house. She did, however, care about having to get up at 6 in the morning. It wasn't fun, but she did it so she could get to Weiss' house before dinner time.

Alas, that was the problem with how they lived 9 hours apart from each other. To make matters worse, Ruby still needed to pack for the night. That in of itself didn't require much, but she still needed to grab some stuff for the trip up, spending the night over at her roommate's home, and then the trip back.

When her alarm went off early in the morning, Ruby begrudgingly woke up, mentally cursing herself for having to get up that early. She hopped into the shower, taking a while so that she could fully wake up. Ruby walked out of the bathroom refreshed, walking back into her room before looking down to the floor below and noticing that her father was awake and in the kitchen. So she went down to say hey for a few minutes. "Morning, dad."

The man turned around and saw Ruby, giving him a small smile as a result. "Morning, Ruby. I take it you are getting ready to leave soon?"

Ruby looked at the clock, which read 7a.m. "I figured if I leave between 7:30-8 I should be good."

He nodded in agreement. "Yes, you don't know how the roads will be. And check to make sure that your GPS is working. If it isn't then you have a problem."

Ruby rolled her eyes and grinned. "Yes, dad, I know, I know. Anyway I'll see you when I get back tomorrow." Ruby went and gave her father a hug, who was about to leave to go to work.

"Be safe, Ruby."

Ruby ran back up to her room and got changed into something that she would be comfortable in her car in, then finished packing up the rest of her stuff, which consisted of two spare changes of clothes, her pajamas, a pillow, a towel, and bathing suit, which Weiss suggested that she bring, as well as her toothbrush, toothpaste, and any other toiletries she needed.

Ruby then looked at the clock and saw that it was 7:26. Thinking that was good enough, Ruby took her bag downstairs and threw it into her car. Then she got in and started the engine. Letting her car heat up a bit, she decided to call Weiss to let her know she was on her way.

Weiss was sleeping soundly, enjoying the peace and quiet of her comfortable bed. Since it was the winter break, she took this time to catch up on some much needed sleep. It came as no surprise then, that she was unhappy to hear her phone go off this early in the morning. She didn't even check who it was that was calling her. "Mgh, hello?" Weiss managed to grumble that somehow.

"Hey, Weiss. What's up?"

Weiss almost instantly recognized who it was, and she started to focus on how she sounded. "Ugh, hello, Ruby. You just woke me up, so I guess nothing." Weiss let out a long yawn.

"I'm sorry for waking you, but I wanted to let you know I was about to leave for your place now. From what my GPS says, it looks like I will be there between 5 and 6."

Weiss realized, she needed to make the place look spotless. Her eyes burst wide open, and she sat up with lightning speed. "O-ok, well be safe out there. When you get close, don't hesitate to call and I can guide you the rest of the way." Weiss stood up faster than she should have, causing her to get light headed for a second.

"Ok, I'll see ya later Weiss." Ruby hung up the phone from her end, just as Weiss regained her composure and felt the blood flow in her head return to normal.

It didn't last that long however, as she immediately went into a panic, trying to make sure that her place was in perfect order. She started to clean her room personally, not even bothering to let the service assist with her endeavours.

She was so engrossed with her efforts, that she failed to notice someone come up to her doorway and watch her.

"Oh how absolutely marvelous this looks."

Weiss jumped when she heard this, which was surprising since she was running the vacuum cleaner. After standing upright once more, she looked to the door and was surprised to see who was there. "Whitley? What are you doing here? I thought you were on your business venture."

Weiss younger brother took that as initiative to invite himself into the room. "Alas, due to the weather conditions, the trip was cut short. Mother informed me that the weather conditions also had a hand in hindering your holiday plans, is this correct?"

"This is true," Weiss confirmed, doing her best to not show off that she was rolling her eyes. "Though I'm a little surprised you took such a vested interest in my dealings."

"Well, I was also made aware of whom was coming over to our estate. I figured that I might as well introduce myself to the woman who shares a room with you at college," Whitley continued.

Weiss couldn't believe that Whitley's reasoning was that simple. "What angle are you trying to reach for?"

Whitley placed his hand up to his chest, giving off a false sense of feeling hurt by the accusations, though Weiss was able to see that he was being partially disingenuous. "My dear sister, what in the world would possibly give you the idea that I would be trying to play some sort of under the table business?"

"You're my brother," Weiss started off by saying. "You can't stand me, and I imagine you would want the position that I was placed into. I could start listing things off to add onto that if you so desire."

"That won't be necessary, I see your point," Whitley conceded as he walked towards the door. "Regardless, I'm surely interested to meet this friend of yours." Once he was finished, Whitley walked out of the room and left Weiss to her own actions.

Keeping the conversation in the back of her mind, Weiss sighed to herself, and returned to her work cleaning her room.

* * *

After spending two hours cleaning her room, cleaning it to the point where any more cleaning would result in her room being used as an anti-contamination room by the government, Weiss' mother walked in and saw what she was doing. Upon walking in, Willow seemed to be confused, firstly because Weiss was actually doing the work, and second because the room was already clean from before. "Weiss dear, what in the world are you doing?"

Weiss was once again surprised, and then her feelings turned to worry about whether her own mother was dirtying her room again. "I'm trying to clean here, mother. Ruby is on her way up and I have a lot of work to do."

Willow seemed confused. "You certainly seem to be putting in a lot of effort for just one person, Weiss."

Weiss stood up and looked directly at her mother. "Mother, Ruby is my friend, she is my roommate. What do you want me to do, not be courteous enough to clean up for her?"

Her mother stared at her for a few seconds, then she started to laugh. "What's so funny, mother?" The matron Schnee had to slow down her laughing for a few seconds before she finally could control herself.

"I think she is more than just a friend, Weiss." Weiss froze, since she didn't expect to be told that it could be that. Weiss was very fond of Ruby, respected all that she was, and they were close friends, even though they only knew each other for a short time. Weiss didn't believe that it could be because of that though.

"What the hell makes you say that though, mother?" Weiss asked, letting her arms emphasize how audacious she thought the idea was.

Willow decided that it was just better to let Weiss' exaggerations slide, given the circumstances. "Well, it's because you are cleaning up a room that is already spotless. You are going overboard just for one person, and a person who as you put it, is your first real friend. I think that this is just more than a mere friendship you have with Ruby dear."

Weiss stood still for a moment, her mind not in the moment but thinking of what her mother just said. "I don't understand what you mean by that."

"Oh, you truly do take after myself, more than you know," Willow sighed as she walked over to her daughter's desk and sat in the chair. "Without giving it thought, what would be the first word you would use to describe Ruby."

Without thinking, Weiss spat out the first word that came to mind. "Beautiful."

As if she was shocked at what she just heard, Weiss stood paralyzed, unable to comprehend what it was that she had said. After a long pause, Weiss finally found words to say in response. "What did I just say?"

"I believe that you may have a bit of a crush on your friend, Ruby," Willow elaborated, a victorious smirk crossing her face.

Weiss couldn't believe it. "But, I'm not attracted to women though."

"And I didn't think so either," Willow explained. "But then college happened, and needless to say there was quite a few nights where I had a more than steamy night with a girlfriend of mine."

"What?" Now Weiss had so many questions, especially after her mother dropped that little bit of knowledge on her head.

"Oh wow, you wouldn't believe the things that I've learned during those years of my life," Willow spoke. "Myself and Kali had such wonderful nights together back when we were roommates in college. This was all well before I met your father, and our relationship was for the most part platonic. Still there was some love between the two of us. Now that we're older and both married, things are different, of course. I really should give her a call and see how she's doing."

"Mother, what are you trying to say?" Weiss demanded to know, standing next to her mother.

Sighing, Willow stood up, grabbed Weiss' hand and guided her over to her bed. "I believe that there may be some feelings that you harbor towards your fellow women. How large that desire is, I do not know. But, this is something you cannot deny."

"But I don't feel like I'm attracted to her," Weiss denied, this time with a little bit less conviction.

"Are you saying this to me? Or are you trying to convince yourself?" Willow asked, making Weiss start to question her own motives and desires. "Just give it some thought, you might find somethings are a bit different than you imagined."

Willow decided at that point to walk away, leaving Weiss to think about all that was happening. Weiss was deep in thought about what her mother had said, that maybe they were more than just friends. Weiss admitted to her mother that Ruby was the first real friend that she ever had, and that Ruby was a special person to her. Ruby was someone she would never forget, but she never thought of her as something more than a friend. Weiss always assumed that she was never into that sort of thing. But things change, and maybe her mother was right, maybe she was attracted to Ruby.

Keeping those thoughts in mind, she continued to clean up her room hoping that she could work off this confusion that had pervaded her thoughts.

"... Wait, did my mother just admit that she had sex with a woman?!"

* * *

Ruby had been driving for hours up to this point, she was about 15 minutes away from Weiss' house, and boy was she ready to get there. She had spent almost the entire time of her drive mentally debating how things were going to go down in her head. And at one point, she called Blake and asked her what she should do with Weiss.

Blake was the only one who knew how Ruby felt, since Ruby was being very shy about this. In turn, the black haired bookworm simply said to be calm and say what comes naturally when she eventually tells her about this.

Ruby remembered the letter she wrote for Weiss, leaving it back at her place, waiting for New Years to arrive. Ruby had asked about what to do while she was at Weiss' place, to which Blake said that she should just treat it as if she was at school. That was definitely something Ruby could do.

Eventually she found her way over to Weiss' house, or better yet, mansion as Ruby would describe it. The house had a gate to it, separating it from the rest of the world. Ruby drove up and a man came up to her car, not looking to be in a good mood. "Name."

"Ruby Rose, I should be expected," Ruby said with a smile on her face.

He looked at his clipboard, then he shook his head. "Sorry, you're not on the list. I'm gonna ask you to leave."

Ruby looked confused at him. "Wait what? Weiss told me that I would be let in no problem."

The man looked at Ruby, he didn't seem to listen. "I don't care if you think that Miss Schnee would want to see you, you're not getting in." The man felt his phone go off, picking it up. "Hello?" The man looked like he wanted to argue, but something stopped him. "Yes, Ma'am." He put his phone away, then pressed a button, opening the gate. "Sorry for keeping you, Miss Rose."

Resisting the urge to show the gate guard her rendition of the bird, Ruby drove in and found a place to park. Afterwards she grabbed her bag and walked over to the gate of the house. Ruby felt very underdressed for this place, the doors had to at least be 25 feet tall. Ruby started to feel a bit intimidated when she got to the door, which was answered after a few seconds by the very person she was there to see, Weiss Schnee.

"Ruby, come in." Weiss smiled and gestured, leading Ruby into her house. Ruby took off her shoes and left them by the door, following Weiss with her bag afterwards. Weiss took her up to her room, which when Ruby saw it, she felt even smaller than she did when she arrived. "Ruby? You ok?"

It was enough to snap Ruby back into reality. She shook her head and regained her focus. "Yeah, just feeling a bit small right now." Ruby put her bag near the door, then turned to Weiss. For some reason, Ruby had a feeling that Weiss was deep within her own thoughts. "So, you got anything to eat? I'm starving."

Weiss shook her head, laughing a tiny bit. "I'm not surprised. You drove practically all day so I would have been surprised if you weren't hungry right now." Weiss walked with Ruby over to the dining room. "Dinner will be ready in about 5 minutes, if you can wait that long." Weiss pulled a chair out for Ruby, showing her where she was sitting, right next to Weiss.

* * *

 **AN: Now things are starting to get interesting. For those of you who have read this story before, I would like to know something. What do you think of the changes to the story so far? Are the differences better? Do you think things are weird? Do you like how I've touched things up? In any case, just following and fave-ing the story is enough for me, reviews are just a bonus so thank you all.**

 **See you all next chapter.**


	15. How Very Strange

Once Ruby sat down, Weiss' parents came into the room. "Oh hello Ruby, how are you doing?" Her father said.

"I'm doing good. Had a bit of trouble at the gate, but obviously it was taken care of." Ruby smiled, not wanting it to be an issue.

"We are aware of that. It's our fault for not reminding him about you coming. We apologize for that." Mrs. Schnee said.

"Oh don't worry about it," Ruby replied, eager to see what their meal was going to be. "Things worked out in the end and I'm not upset over anything that happened."

"Still, we should notify the guard that should this happen again…" Mr. Schnee began to say. "... That he should get into contact with us to verify whether appointments, meetings, get-togethers, etc. are accurate or not."

"Well, I'm glad I could help out with that," Ruby continued, emphasizing the positives from this experience.

"Interesting," another voice called out from the entrance to the dining hall. "I wasn't aware that guest had arrived. I was hoping to introduce myself before she was swept away by my sister."

Ruby turned around to get a good look at the newcomer. What she got was an uncanny resemblance of Weiss, except male, and a bit paler. "You must be Whitley," Ruby said, putting that normal smile on her face.

"So my sister did speak of me during her time away," Whitley stated. "I'm surprised that my name would come up at any point in time during college."

"Yes, believe it or not I speak about you," Weiss elaborated, keeping a watchful glare on her own brother to see if he was trying something. "Are you joining us for dinner, or did you just wish to introduce yourself and be on your way?"

"I have some business to attend to, although I could spare some time to give Miss Rose here a tour of the estate," Whitley continued.

Before Ruby could say anything, Weiss spoke up. " _I_ will handle that part."

Ruby couldn't help but look over to her roommate, and what she saw surprised the redhead. She saw what looked like a bit of hostility, caution, and for some reason she felt like she saw a bit of jealousy.

"Children, please," Jacques boomed out in a tone that commanded authority. That threw Ruby off even more, having never heard this side of Weiss' father in the times that they had met each other. "We have a guest and it is impolite to squabble and bicker in front of those we bring into our home. Whitley, if you wish to join us for dinner, please take a seat. If not you may return to your business at hand. Weiss, please ensure that Miss Rose is having a good time, she is your guest after all."

Hearing her father talk like that, Weiss held her head down a bit, feeling ashamed that she had to be practically yelled at. "Apologies."

Seeing Weiss like that, Jacques then took on a much more caring tone. "I know you are, and I'm sorry for having to yell, but I don't like seeing my children argue with each other."

"Well then, if you'll excuse me," Whitley said, turning around and heading out the door without another word.

Weiss' mother placed her hand on Ruby's shoulder and leaned down to whisper into Ruby's ear. "I am sorry that you had to see that. For the longest time, Weiss and Whitley had been at odds with each other. We had hoped their time apart would help bridge that gap, but it seems like this problem isn't as easy as it would seem."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Ruby asked, keeping her tone down so as to not draw attention to the two of them.

"I think you're doing enough to help out already," Willow explained, rubbing the top of Ruby's head and playing around with her hair. "Anyway, I do believe that dinner is ready, so let's say we eat."

Once they had all sat down the food came out. Ruby's eyes widened at all the food being brought out. She was starving and it served her stomach to see as much food as she did. Ruby filled up easily and had enjoyed the dinner really much. Throughout the meal, there was casual conversation, nothing really long lasting though. Most of the conversation was about how the roommates enjoyed their first semester together, the results of their grades, and how they have been spending their vacation. It was almost like they completely forgot about what had happened earlier that evening.

When they finished, Weiss took Ruby on a tour of their very large house. Given how large the estate was, the tour lasted quite a bit of time. Once that was done, Weiss suggested that the two of them spend some time in the hot tub together. Ruby didn't object to that, it would be nice to relax and unwind.

"Oh boy, the water feels nice," Ruby said after she had got changed into her bathing suit and walked in. "I didn't even realize I had some tension until just now."

"Well that is the beauty of hot tubs, isn't it?" Weiss continued, walking in and taking a seat across from Ruby. "They do wonders to your stress level."

"You know, given how hard you work yourself, I imagine you've spent a bit of time in here before you went to college," Ruby replied, resting her arms on the edges of the tub.

"Would you believe me if I said that I was in here at least 3 times a week before I went to college?" Weiss asked.

After giving it some thought, Ruby could only shrug. "Somehow that's not surprising."

"When I got home from Signal, that first full day home, I was in this hot tub 5 different times," Weiss explained. "Not having something like that at college is a bit of a change from what you're used to."

"Ok, now that seems a bit excessive. But that's just my thoughts," Ruby laughed, leaning her head back and relaxing a bit more. "Still I get what you mean when you say that it's a big change from what you're used to."

"Things could be worse," Weiss admitted. "I could've been stuck with a hyperactive roommate that is needy for attention." The telltale smirk on her face gave away that she was trying to tease Ruby.

"Oh that's just mean, Ice Queen," Ruby prodded back.

"I've had years of experience at being mean," Weiss stated, shifting her head upwards in a snoody-esque fashion.

"In that case," Ruby smirked as she moved over to Weiss' side of the tub and began to poke and tickle Weiss' sides.

"Ruby stop that!" Weiss shouted as she laughed and squirmed at the touch. "That tickles!"

"TICKLE BARRAGE!" Ruby proclaimed as she refused to let up on Weiss.

Weiss' body couldn't help but twist in ways that Weiss wasn't sure were possible. She struggled to get control of the situation. Trying her hardest, she did whatever she could to stop Ruby from tickling her. She tried to move away from Ruby, but that didn't work, pushing her hands away was only a temporary situation.

The white haired girl finally got an advantage when she managed to grip one of Ruby's wrists and hold it away from her. With one hand out of the mix, she put her attention into the other one. Getting a grip on that, Weiss held Ruby's hands in her own, pinning them above the younger girls head.

That's when Weiss realized just how close her face was to Ruby's. She realized exactly how she held her arms. She remembered their current environment and subsequent attire. Lastly, she didn't realize it before then, but in the scuffle, Weiss had somehow managed to get herself to straddle Ruby.

For a few moments, time seemed to slow down and both girls felt their minds go into overdrive. Subconsciously, they started to lean in closer together, their lips mere inches from each other.

The door opening loudly and a person walking inside the room, brought them back to reality. "WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE?!"

Immediately upon hearing a voice, Weiss practically threw herself away from Ruby in a panic. Her face was extremely red, not only from embarrassment, but from the thoughts that were racing all throughout her head. It took her a moment to even realize that Willow had walked in on the two of them. With all of this, she was struggling to keep her composure.

"Mrs. Schnee, I was just tickling her, that's all I swear!" Ruby replied nervously, just as confused as Weiss was.

Taking a moment to slow her pulse and calm herself, Willow walked over to the tub and placed a hand on Weiss' shoulder. "I apologize for startling you, dear. I heard yelling and kicked into protective mother mode. I didn't expect to catch you in such a position with a friend. I'm sorry."

Weiss wasn't even sure if she fully heard what her mother had said. She only decided to nod in acknowledgement, before stepping out of the tub. "Sorry, I just need a minute." Weiss quickly grabbed her towel and walked over to where she could get changed.

"Well, I don't know what I just walked in on, but I apologizing for ruining the mood," Willow said to Ruby after her daugher walked out.

"It's quite alright," Ruby replied half-heartedly, still not sure how to feel about what transpired just now.

"Well, knowing my daughter, she's gonna spend the next 20 minutes getting her head on straight," Winter stated. "In all honesty, I don't think she's gonna feel up to talking about this right now, whatever was going on. So please don't pressure her into talking about it if she doesn't want to."

Sighing, Ruby got out of the tub and walked over to the side, getting a towel and drying herself off. "So is there a place I can get changed? Weiss is in the other changing room right now and I don't think I should bother her."

Nodding, Willow motioned for Ruby to follow her. "Since I have you for a few minutes, perhaps you could tell me what you thought of my daughter during your first semester rooming with her."

* * *

After the debacle in the shower, Weiss and Ruby reunited in the lounge. Exactly as Weiss' mother had said, Weiss wasn't going to talk about it, and Ruby decided that she wouldn't bring it up. Weiss was putting out a better face to keep everything looking like it was normal.

A few more hours of time had passed and eventually the roommates went to get ready for bed. Ruby grabbed her bag, and was about to go to a different room, believing she was going to be in one of the other rooms. "Hey, which way is it to the guest room?"

Weiss seemed confused. "Why do you ask?"

"Cause I figured I would end up crashing there that's why."

Weiss walked between Ruby and the door. "Ruby, don't think that you get one of those rooms. I have no problem with you spending the night in here with me, I do that enough with you as is at college."

Ruby seemed to be getting nervous, she wasn't going to be outright with it, but she still felt nervous either way. Given what had happened earlier, the younger girl couldn't help but notice that Weiss had been acting really differently than normal. Despite all that, Ruby put her bag on the floor, conceding to Weiss' point. She figured it would help them out and bring some normalcy to whatever was going on.

Ruby got changed into something to sleep in. By the time that the redhead was back in Weiss' room, the rooms primary keeper was changed and laying down in her really large bed. Ruby looked at the other bed that was in there, figuring that it belonged to her, and plopped down onto it.

Ruby and Weiss went to sleep, only Ruby kept tossing and turning throughout the night. She didn't understand why she was still awake, maybe it was because of being that close to Weiss, after finally realizing that she couldn't hide from her feelings anymore. On top of that, she couldn't help but question why Weiss was acting weird earlier.

Ruby couldn't fall asleep, she had too much running through her mind, looking at Weiss and wanting to just sleep right up next to her. She thought that Weiss looked cute in her slumber, which caused her to not be able to sleep even more. Trying to keep calm like Blake had suggested, wasn't going to be easy, but even after a while, she fell asleep.

* * *

 **AN: I had to include some more of the little shit in this chapter, gotta show that Weiss is acting strangely when it comes to/when she is around Ruby in certain scenarios.**

 **For those of you who read this story before, most of what was in this chapter was new. I need to build more towards the big thing that happens at the end of this arc (if you guys remember what that is).**

 **In any case, thank you all for the continued support with each chapter, and I look forward to any reviews that you guys may choose to leave if you so desire.**

 **See ya next chapter!**


	16. Road Trip Things

Monday December 30th

Morning came quickly for Weiss Schnee. She felt good when she managed to get a full nights rest. Even after everything that had happened, last night's sleep felt really well. She thought that maybe it was because of Ruby being there, but she didn't bother to think about it too much. It wouldn't do her much good to dwell on this.

She sat up and took a look around, noticing that Ruby was missing. In an instant, Weiss became frantic, looking around to try and find her roommate. Suddenly she heard the shower turn off, and she pieced together that Ruby was in there. Letting out a sigh in relief, she laid back down and closed her eyes. After a few moments, Weiss heard the door open, and noticed that Ruby walked in to grab something clean to get into.

Weiss looked over and saw Ruby, wearing nothing but a towel to cover up. She couldn't help but stare at Ruby, so many thoughts running into her mind. "Oh my god!" Ruby shouted right after she turned to see Weiss looking at her. Ruby ran out the door in an instant, scaring Weiss in the process.

Weiss jumped out of bed and immediately started to wonder about what just happened. She waited a moment before walking out of the room to try and find where Ruby was. She eventually found out where she was, seeing the door to the bathroom shut and locked. Weiss knocked on the door. "Go away, Weiss, you have no idea how embarrassed I am right now."

Weiss just rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but feel like it was her fault Ruby felt the way she did. "Ruby, come on, there is no reason to be embarrassed over this. Can you please come out?" Weiss had to wait for a few moments before Ruby cracked open the door. She peeked her head out and looked at Weiss.

"I didn't get my pants from my bag, can you grab them for me?" Ruby asked, her face was as red as her namesake, and she refused to look Weiss in the eyes.

Weiss looked at her confused. "You do know that I saw you last night wearing only a bathing suit." Ruby looked to argue the point, but she decided not to. Weiss, as a gesture of consideration, decided to turn around, allowing Ruby to run back to her room and grab her pants. "So what reason did you have for running out?" Ruby, who was finally wearing her pants again, walked out of Weiss' room.

"I felt disgusted at myself, not wanting you to think I looked hideous in front of you." Ruby and Weiss made their way to the dining room, where pancakes lay before them.

"Ruby, you have seen me in a towel, and I didn't freak out over it. Don't you think that it should be the same way for you?"

Ruby didn't say a word, she simply sat down and ate her pancakes, as did Weiss. "I guess you're right, just me being paranoid huh." Ruby said in between bites, which resulted in Weiss nodding. Ruby didn't want to worry Weiss after all, didn't want to give her roommate any impression that there was other reasons for her not wanting to be in that state. Fortunately for Ruby, that conversation pretty much ended at that point.

* * *

After they finished eating, Ruby threw the stuff she brought into her bag, and Weiss gathered her bags and the two of them threw the bags into Ruby's car. Then they bid farewell to Weiss' parents, and made their way to Ruby's house.

The trip began smoothly, before it started to snow. "Wow, look at all this snow." Weiss seemed to be enjoying it, and all Ruby could think of was how bad that was.

"Great, just what I needed right now, snow. Why couldn't it have done this when I'm not driving?" Ruby pouted and blew some hair out from in front of her face.

Weiss looked over to Ruby. "Don't get too excited now, Ruby, I can't contain it all."

Ruby sighed. "Weiss, you have never driven in this white fluffy powder of death. You wouldn't understand."

"So you're telling me you don't like snow?" Weiss looked at Ruby like she was acting crazier than normal.

"I never said I didn't like snow, I'm just saying that driving in this is not fun."

"How bad could it honestly be?"

Ruby shook her head. Weiss was being naive and Ruby knew this, so she wanted to hold back, but decided not to. "People can die in weather like this. But you know, that doesn't seem bad now does it?" Ruby instantly knew she should have said something differently, in the back of her mind she remembered how tired she was, and when she got tired, she could get snappy at people. Weiss looked at her kinda upset for a moment. "Look I'm sorry, I should have worded that differently."

Weiss decided to look out the window, taking note of how weird things had just got between them. "It's ok." That's all Weiss could say to her.

The awkward silence that overtook the two of them was palpable.

Weiss was staring out the window, realizing that they had 9 hours of driving ahead of them. With how things were already starting, there was going to be some kind of problem if it stayed like this. For the life of her thought, Weiss didn't know what it was that she wanted to say to Ruby.

Ruby really didn't like the silence either. Not only was it tense between the two of them right now, but the silence only served to prolong the journey. This was going to drive Ruby insane if something didn't change.

"Um, do you mind if I play some music?" Ruby asked, hoping that Weiss wouldn't care.

"It's your car, don't feel like you need to worry about my thoughts," Weiss answered, just giving Ruby a glance before turning back to the window.

When Ruby reached a stoplight, she pulled out her music player, and hooked it up to her car. Putting all of the songs on shuffle, she decided to let the randomness take over. As the first song came up, Ruby felt like things sounded a bit different with the music this time. She swore she could hear someone else singing in this. She turned the music volume down so that she could see if it was from the speakers, but when she did, the sound went away.

Naturally, Ruby turned the volume back up to what it was before, and after a few moments, she heard the strange noise again. This time however, it was just a bit louder.

"That one guitar, felt good in his hands,

didn't take long, to understand

Just one guitar, slung way down low

Was a one way ticket, only one way to go…"

Turning over quickly, she noticed that Weiss' mouth was moving. She realized then and there, that Weiss was singing along to the music. Before she ended up pointing it out to her roommate, Ruby had an idea that if it worked, would make the drive much better for the both of them.

"So he started rockin', ain't never gonna stop

Gotta keep on rockin', someday gonna make it to the top."

As soon as she started singing, Weiss looked over, and for a brief second, the two of them had the exact same idea go through their head.

"And be a juke box hero!" Ruby belted, holding one hand out as if she was holding a microphone in her hands, before switching it over to Weiss.

"Got stars in his eyes!"

"He's a juke box hero." After taking the imaginary microphone back and belting out the next part of the song, Ruby made some noises with her mouth that were meant to sound like guitar licks. "He took one guitar!"

Weiss then continued on with what she perceived to be her part. "Juke box hero stars in his eyes!"

"Juke box hero!" Ruby said, holding the "microphone" in between the two of them so they could share it.

"Stars in his eyes."

"He'll come alive tonight!"

As soon as the chorus ended, the two of them just burst out into laughter. They let the song continue on as they didn't have the composure to keep going with it at that point.

A few minutes went by before the two of them could finally breathe normally. "I'm surprised you sang as well as you did. I've heard you sing in the showers before, no offense but it isn't exactly the greatest."

Ruby sheepishly rubbed the back of her head at Weiss' comments. "Yeah, that's why I never really did the singing. Usually I played bass guitar."

"You performed in a band?" Weiss asked, her arms crossed and she looked at Ruby like she wasn't being serious.

"In all fairness, it was Yang's idea," Ruby defended. "Oh man, you should've seen some of the weird shenanigans we got into."

"Don't tell me your oaf of a sister got a band together," Weiss said, questioning Ruby's judgement for allowing that to happen.

"Hey, for the first few times, it worked out," Ruby explained. "Then people started to realize that Yang wasn't actually a great singer. And that's when the tomatoes started to get thrown."

"Oh no," Weiss commented.

"Needless to say, Yang isn't allowed back at that club ever again," Ruby elaborated, a smile stretched across her face. "Not only did she beat up about half the nightclub staff, but also the owner and his two twin daughters."

"Why don't I believe that even Yang of all people could pull off something that incredibly stupid?" Weiss asked.

"If you don't believe me, Nora got the whole thing on video," Ruby shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time my sister got into trouble before."

"Knowing your sister as well as I do, I get the feeling she got in trouble quite a bit," Weiss mentioned. "Would you believe me if I said I was the troublemaker in my family?"

"Well, your brother, after what I saw of him yesterday, seemed to be a lil' shit," Ruby commented.

"I would say you're wrong, but in all honesty, there is a modicum of truth to that statement," Weiss said after debating for a moment if Ruby was actually wrong.

"As for your sister, I wouldn't know because I never met her yet," Ruby mentioned. "Though hopefully that changes soon."

"Yes, my sister was always a by-the-books kind of person, her being in the military only helps to prove that point even further," Weiss continued. "I on the other hand, would be the person who would walk outside and play in the rain when I was supposed to be studying. I wore my hair in a weird fashion, as you can see right now. I would stay up until late in the night just so I could steal cookies out of the cookie jar. And while I was a child when most of this stuff happened, I still feel like I'm just a little rebel at heart."

"No wonder Yang likes you," Ruby commented. "She was always the defiant one as well. Never really one to get angry and lash out, mostly just get into trouble because of her actions. She always had a smile on her face when she faced it thought."

Weiss looked over and saw Ruby's smile, and she thought it looked beautiful. "Has Yang ever gotten truly mad before? She doesn't really seem like the type that would."

And with that, Weiss saw Ruby's smile falter. "It's kind of a long story," Ruby said.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere else but in this car for the near foreseeable future," Weiss elaborated. "But if you don't want to share, then that's fine."

Ruby stayed silent for a few moments, taking a deep breath and thinking of how to let this conversation go. "You know exactly the details of my family? Why Yang and I are only half siblings?"

"You mentioned that you have the same father, but different mothers," Weiss answered.

"Well, long story short, Yang's mother isn't exactly a good role model, or really any role model at all, considering she was never around," Ruby explained. "The last time Yang got truly mad, was during this past spring, and it involved her mother. That's all I really want to say about this."

"I'm sorry for bringing up bad memories," Weiss said.

"It's fine," Ruby said, though the thought about that argument, brought up a few other unpleasant memories that Ruby wanted buried. "I would appreciate a change in topic however. So, want to explain to me how little Weiss decided she wanted to play in the rain?"

"Somehow, I am going to regret telling you about these things, aren't I?" Weiss asked herself as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"We got plenty of time to talk about anything possible, so feel free to start sharing!" Ruby exclaimed.

* * *

 **AN: Real quick, shoutout to BurningPeace for the karaoke session between our favorite dolts. Not much to say here, just wanted to say thank you guys for the continued support throughout all of this. Feel free to follow, fave, and review at your own discretion, they are not required. See you once again in the next chapter!**


	17. Arrival

After a few hours of driving, the dull nature of it began to make Ruby feel sleepy. While she and Weiss had continued to make conversation during the trip, the snow had stopped falling. That meant Ruby's level of alertness went down dramatically, and she knew that she was going to fall asleep if something didn't change.

So when Ruby noticed that they needed to get gas, she decided to hit the convenient store that usually came along with it. Ruby saw the exit for the gas station and took it, coming upon it almost immediately.

"Doesn't your gps say we need to keep going straight on for another couple hundred miles?" Weiss asked once she saw Ruby start to make the exit.

"Need to get gas, unless you like being stranded out in the middle of nowhere," Ruby replied as she saw the gas station in question.

"I guess you make a good point," Weiss agreed, after looking at the gas station Ruby noticed.

When they pulled up to the pump, Ruby looked at Weiss. "Can you pump while I run inside real quick?"

Weiss seemed to hesitate. "Wait what?"

Ruby turned back to Weiss, as she was about to get out of the car. "You know how to pump gas right?" Weiss, wide eyed and stoic, slowly and subtly shook her head, telling Ruby she knew nothing about how to pump gas. Ruby looked up and sighed. "Follow me." Ruby got out of the car, as did Weiss after a second.

Ruby took a minute to show Weiss what to do, then told her to finish up, while she went into the convenient store. "You want anything?" She asked before going over.

"If they have a bag of pistachios, that would be wonderful, if not then I'm not too upset. Oh, and a bottle of water, I've kinda run out on mine." Ruby nodded and went inside. She found the nuts easily, and then she grabbed what she had been looking for, an energy drink. Ruby smiled at the concoction before her eyes, grabbed a can and then grabbed herself a small bag of candy. She then paid for all of it and came back out. As she was paying for it, her phone went off, but it was for a social media site she was on. Apparently someone had included her in a post, and it just so happened to be Weiss.

"6 hours into a 9 hour trip, and I finally learned how to pump gas for myself, thanks to Ruby Rose. Don't know whether I should feel good about knowing now, or ashamed that it took this long to learn it."

Ruby shook her head, then walked back to the car. Once she got in, she held her phone up for Weiss to see what she just put out. "What? I was being serious about that." Not a second later, Ruby's sister commented on the post.

"If only you knew how much I face-palmed at that."

Ruby just laughed at that. "Way to go Yang." Weiss looked mad, but Ruby knew she would get over it quickly.

* * *

After another hour had gone by, and Ruby's energy drink, Ruby still felt tired. She thought things would get better, but they clearly did not, so she had to ask Weiss for some help, which would require her to explain her lack of sleep the night before. "Weiss, can I ask you for something?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

Ruby sighed before she went into her explanation. "So, for this entire trip, I have been going on about an hour and a half of sleep, and I feel like I am going to fall asleep. That means that I need you to just talk to me for a while so that I can stay awake for the last two hours of the trip ok?"

Weiss nodded. "Of course, anything specific you want to talk about?"

"Anything will do, just keep talking to me ok?"

"Ok, so, why are you feeling tired?" Weiss asked immediately, thinking of a couple of questions that she could ask. Ruby nodded to Weiss, indicating a good question.

"Well, let's just say, I didn't sleep well last night. I have no idea why, but I just didn't." Truth is, Ruby did know, she just didn't want to tell her the truth yet.

"Does that happen often, or was this just a freak incident," Weiss asked again, keeping the conversation going.

"Honestly, I don't know," Ruby replied.

Weiss' mind immediately went to one other question, one that had been on her mind quite a bit as of late. For better or worse, there was no way for her to word this politely.

"Ok, well here is actually something I always wanted to know, and there's no easy way to word this question. What's it like to be a lesbian?"

Ruby was taking a sip of water when she was asked this question, and she almost spit it out when Weiss asked the question. "Wait, what did you just say?"

Weiss was worried she asked something that she shouldn't have asked. Though she did want to know seeing as how she was questioning her own sexuality as of late. Her mother brought up a very interesting thought that had been stuck in Weiss' mind for a bit. She didn't know whether she thought of Ruby as just a close friend, or something more. So in her mind, she had to do some research.

"Yeah, I want to know what it's like for you? Look, if this is too awkward for you to talk about, I'll ask you a different question." Weiss replied, immediately regretting her question.

"Nonono, it's fine," Ruby panicked, not wanting Weiss to feel awkward. "I just, wasn't expecting that question. Just, give me a moment, I guess." Ruby sat there thinking of where to begin. "Um, well, it's pretty normal, aside from the fact that you find girls attractive instead of guys. Other than that the only thing is sometimes there are people that are hateful but that's just because people can be jerks."

Weiss nodded, taking mental notes in her head. "Ok, so I take it that means that you have looked at other girls and thought of them as more than girls right?" Ruby gave Weiss a look that said obviously she has. "Ok I walked right into that one," Weiss said, to which Ruby laughed, she started to feel better about talking to Weiss about this.

"Yeah, that shouldn't be much of a surprise that I've looked at girls," Ruby commented.

"Ok, what do you think about…" Weiss began to think of people that they were friends with that she could ask Ruby about. "... Blake?"

"I mean, she's dating Sun, so I never really thought of that, but if you want to know what I think of her, I think she's attractive, she's got that mystery factor to her. Plus, she's practically a ninja," Ruby said, being as honest as possible.

"Alright, Nora," Weiss asked next. "What do you think of her?"

"Very bubbly, more excitable than me, and cute at times, but needless to say not attractive to me. That relationship combo would be too detrimental to the health of everyone else," Ruby answered honestly. "Plus, her and Ren are together so that immediately takes her off the table."

"I take it their relationship status is a big factor in whether you look at them or not, correct?" Weiss asked.

"Yep," Ruby explained. "I don't like the idea of trying to steal someone else's girl, or guy if that's what you're into."

"Alright, then here's someone who's single, Pyrrha," Weiss noted.

"Oh she's pretty hot, not sure if she's into girls though, but if she was, I'd definitely consider it, if I felt something more than just primal attraction to her at the time," Ruby explained.

"So, slender and athletic, but smart at the same time," Weiss mentioned. "I guess that's what you're into, huh."

"I guess, it's more so the smart aspect though, I like smart girls," Ruby continued to explained.

' _Wait, smart girls, I'm smart… does that mean… no no it couldn't mean that… could it?_ ' Weiss thought to herself. "Ok, now, I don't mean to make you uncomfortable, but does it make you feel a bit awkward being, you know, while living with another girl in the same room as you?"

"Are you asking if I feel awkward living with you while at college? No, not really," Ruby answered.

"Well, I'm glad I don't make things awkward for you," Weiss said as they continued on their journey to Ruby's home.

* * *

Eventually the pair arrived at Ruby's house. As soon as they pulled in, Ruby felt a wave of exhaustion overcome her. Weiss on the other hand, was surprised at how small the place was. It wasn't a small house by most standards, but to Weiss, it was very tiny.

"So this is where you live," Weiss said.

"Yep, come on, Yang and Dad should have dinner ready for us," Ruby explained as she got out of her car and grabbed her bags. Weiss followed suit and walked behind Ruby up to the house.

After opening the door, Weiss was it with the warmth that emanated from within.

"Dad, I'm home!" Ruby called out as she walked in the door.

"Great timing, dinner just got onto the table," Taiyang shouted from the kitchen. "Go throw your stuff in your room, and help your friend get her stuff in as well, then come on down."

"Come with me, Weiss," Ruby said, before walking up the stairs that were near the front door.

Weiss took a good look before she walked up the stairs. Immediately in front of her was the stair leading upwards to her right. Directly ahead was a hallway that lead to what she could assume was the living room, kitchen and dining room. Immediately to her left was the bathroom, and there were 2 rooms along the left wall in the hallway.

Following Ruby up the stairs, she saw a little tiny pathway that lead left and right. One led to what Weiss could assume was Ruby's father's room, and the other one was open, with Ruby putting her stuff down on the bed inside of it. Immediately to the left of Ruby's room was another bathroom.

"Come on, it's right in here," Ruby said, seeing Weiss up at the top of the steps.

Weiss got a good look inside of Ruby's room. Inside, she immediately saw a desk against the far wall, next to Ruby's bed. She noticed that Ruby had a bunk bed that she used to sleep in instead of a normal bed.

"I'll be in the top bunk, so feel free to take the bottom one," Ruby mentioned. "Sorry if it's not as big as you're used to, but it's what we got."

"That's perfectly fine. Now come on, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty hungry," Weiss said as she placed her stuff down to deal with later. Once she did, Weiss walked down the stairs with Ruby in tow and followed her roommate into the dining room to get dinner.

* * *

 **AN: And now Weiss is at Ruby's home. What could this lead to? I know, and those that read this before, things are going to go mostly the same, with some details changed to add a bit more emotion to the whole thing. But anyway, thank you guys once again for continuing to support this story, I really and truly appreciate it.**

 **See ya all next chapter!**


	18. Coming Into Town

Tuesday December 31st

Blake was generally a patient person, not really showing much emotion for things. Unlike her roommate Yang who was a roulette wheel of emotions, not knowing what you were going to get in a day. While Blake could often deal with the craziness of Yang, sometimes it got to be too much, even for her. It wasn't more evident than right now, when Yang had accidentally given her and Sun bad directions to her house.

Her directions had brought them to a convenient store instead of straight to her house, which annoyed Blake because she couldn't get a hold of the blonde wonder. Blake groaned and hung up her phone again, showing that she was losing her mind.

"Yang I swear, I'm going to claw your eyes out when I see you." Blake looked out of the parked car at the convenient store in front of them, wondering why they had stopped here in the first place.

Sun started to open the door to his truck. "Let's see if anyone inside can help us." Blake shook her head and followed suit, she was tired of being cramped up in the car anyway and wanted to stretch her legs out. As they stepped out of their car, a blonde man approached the two of them.

"You two seem to be lost. Do you need help with anything?" He certainly was polite, at least Blake thought to herself.

"Yes actually, we're lost and we were hoping you could tell us how to get to 636 Crescent Street." He nodded, from what Blake could tell, he seemed to know exactly where they were talking about, which Blake took as a good sign.

"So, you're Yang's roommate then huh? Blake am I right?" Blake's face went blank, she didn't even know the guys but apparently he knew who she was.

"Um, how did you..." Sun began to say but was cut off by the man.

"My name's Taiyang Xiao Long," He said, smiling and extending out his hand.

"Let me guess, Yang asked you to come out and meet with us?" Blake asked.

"I needed to go to the store, and when Yang said you were going to be stopping by the store, I told her I would meet with you two. The drive back to our house is kinda confusing if you don't already know the roads," Taiyang said. "If you guys don't mind waiting for me to get done with my shopping, I'll-"

"I can take them over."

Turning over, Blake and Sun saw another woman approach, this one with jet black hair. Blake swore she could've heard Ruby's father groan as the woman approached.

"And why would you do that?" Taiyang asked.

"You need to go do your shopping, and I don't think these two would want to wait for you to take the next hour getting everything you need. We both know you take forever to go shopping when you need to do that," The woman said.

Getting a better look at the woman, she could see a lot of similar traits to Yang. ' _She couldn't be…_ '

"Well why don't we ask them," Taiyang said before turning to Blake and Sun. "Would you guys rather get to my house quickly, or do you mind waiting for me to finish up with my shopping first?"

Now Blake felt put on the spot. She didn't want to say that it would be preferable to get there now, but at the same time, causing an argument was the last thing on her mind. Ultimately it was Sun who made the decision for her instead.

"As much as we wouldn't mind waiting, I have been driving for a while and want to get over to your place sooner, rather than later," Sun said, thinking more from a practical standpoint. "I'm sure you know how tiring it is to drive for crazy long hours, you just want to get where you are going."

Taiyang gave the reasoning some thought, and his expression showed that he was seeing where Sun was coming from. "Alright, I guess you win this round," Taiyang said as he turned to the woman. "I'm guessing you'll need a ride back out here then?"

"I'm sure Yang would be willing to take me, and if not then I know Ruby would definitely do so," The woman smirked.

"I'm sure she would, sometimes Ruby's too nice for her own good after all," Taiyang agreed.

"Not that it's a bad trait to have," Blake interjected, giving a little bit of defense to her friend.

"Oh I agree, it's what makes her so wonderful," Taiyang said. "Regardless, you guys won't be getting anywhere with us just standing around and talking."

"I'm used to it," The black haired woman stated. "Being in the army does that to you."

"Yes, Raven, I'm sure it would," Taiyang grumbled, rolling his eyes as he walked into the store.

"Anyway, we should probably get going to the Xiao-Long's home, shouldn't we?" The black haired woman, which Blake noted was named Raven, asked.

"Hop on in," Sun said as they walked back over to his truck and climbed in the cabin. It was a bench seat so Blake squeezed in between Sun and their new guest.

"So, we never got your name," Sun mentioned once they got onto the road. "While we appreciate you helping us out with getting to Ruby and Yang's place, it would be nice to know who is guiding us. Ya know, so that we don't have to worry about being taken to the middle of nowhere and murdered."

Raven sighed as they approached the stop light leading out of the store lot onto the main road. "Fair, I suppose. First off, take a left out of here."

"Alright," Sun said as he signaled where he was going.

"Well, since you asked, my name is Raven Branwen," Raven said, giving her name to Sun and Blake.

Upon hearing the name, Blake had a thought cross her mind. "Wait, this may seem weird, but you wouldn't happen to know of a Qrow Branwen, would you?"

Raven rolled her eyes at the thought of her twin brother. "So you know my twin, no surprise there."

"Sorry, it was just a thought that came to mind, no ill intent behind it," Blake backtracked.

"Take a right up here and then you'll be making another right almost immediately," Raven instructed, giving directions over to Sun. "And now you take this right."

"Sheesh, easy to miss that," Sun noted.

"That's why I would assume Yang wanted you to meet with Tai before going here, this way he could bring you guys back easier," Raven noted. "An as for you, I figured that it was just your curiosity. But you know the old saying, curiosity killed the cat."

Blake's expression went dead for a moment as she glared at Raven. "I know that's a figure of speech, but could you have picked a better phrase?"

Raven gave Blake an insightful look and chuckled to herself. "I suppose that only makes my phrase even more ironic, given the circumstances. Didn't mean to insult."

"I figured as much," Blake retorted.

"Anyway, take the next left up ahead," Raven said, giving Sun his next directions. "No, Qrow and I don't always see eye to eye, don't really see eye to eye with any of my 'family'."

Blake was about to say something, but then she remembered her own family situation, how she didn't feel like she saw eye to eye with her own parents. Her comments died at the tip of her tongue before they could be said.

"So then, you must be Yang's roommate, Blake, am I right?" Raven asked.

"How did you… " Blake started to ask, but she lost her train of thought, lost what words she wanted to say in response.

"Taiyang told me about things when I first got back into town about a month or two ago," Raven said. "Take the next right up ahead, from there it's straight for about two to three miles then a right onto their road."

Blake really didn't know how to respond to that comment. Instead Sun was the next to speak up.

"You know, if you know Yang so well, how come she never mentioned anything about you? She's brought up her dad before, and we obviously know Qrow, but how come she never said anything about you before?"

Raven looked out the window, and Blake was sure that she saw a hint of regret in Raven's face. ' _What happened between the two of you?_ ' Blake thought to herself.

"It's complicated," Raven stated. "Nothing you need to worry about though, it's something that really should stay between Yang and myself, no offense."

"None taken, believe me, I get how sometimes things need to stay personal," Sun commented as they turned down onto Ruby and Yang's road. "Well, this is their road, now we just gotta… find out… which house… is… THERE!"

"Yep, this is the place," Raven said. "Pull in so that you aren't blocking anyone else in. I do need a ride back out after this."

Upon parking, Raven quickly got out of the car and walked over to the staircase, though she waited for Sun and Blake to pull their bags out and walk up the stairs first.

Upon arriving, Blake knocked on the front door. Sun stood next to her in the front, and Raven stood off to the side, leaning against the front wall of the Xiao Long Residence. Almost immediately they heard the sounds of footsteps, sounding like they were running down the stairs. Then the door opened, and the two saw the familiar black hair of Ruby Rose.

"Hey guys, I'll let Yang know you're here, come on in!" Ruby cheered as she ran further in to grab her sister. "YANG GET OUT FRONT!" The two heard from inside the house, though Ruby was out of eyesight.

As Blake and Sun were getting their jackets off and their stuff settled inside, they saw a familiar blonde mane approaching them from further in the house. "Heyo! How was the trip over?"

"Yang, next time you want to give me directions to your place, actually tell me where to go instead of having me go to a grocery store," Blake said, while she sounded upset, her face told the blonde that the black haired girl was happy to see her.

"Eh, I figured my dad would be able to help you easier than the G.P.S., sometimes it can be a bit wonky, just ask Nora," Yang commented, though she finally realized her dad wasn't walking in with them. "Speaking of the devil, where is my dad anyway?"

"Um, about that… " Sun started to say, knowing fully well that this couldn't go over well.

Before Sun could continue, Yang walked out front to see if her dad was there. What she did see however, caused her to stop. Her expression darkened when the blonde saw the familiar black hair that was so much like her own. "What are you doing here exactly?"

"And a fine hello to you too, Yang," Raven said as she finally moved from her spot on the wall. "I go and help your friends get here easily and this is the welcome I get?"

From what Blake could tell, it was almost like Raven knew this would happen. Blake saw the look on Yang's face, the frustration, the anger. On Raven, she saw calm, she saw someone who was trying to do right, despite failing.

"You helped my friends get here? I don't really believe you," Yang said.

"She did," Blake interjected. "She offered to help us over since your father was out shopping. When we were asked about it, we decided that we didn't want to wait however long it would take to get here, since we were tired of driving all day as is."

"If you want to get mad at anyone, Yang, get mad at me," Sun also interjected. "I was the one that made the decision."

"Yang even you know that your father takes forever with grocery shopping, this was just something that made it easier for your friends. So I figured I would help you out in that regard," Raven commented.

"Since when did you decide it was time to start being helpful to me?" Yang growled.

Raven just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Alright, let's just forget about this. Can we do that? I don't think we should be doing this in front of your friends anyway."

Yang looked over at Blake and Sun. She was mad, Blake could easily see that. Taking a deep breath, she turned back towards Raven. "Thank you for helping with bringing my friends over," Yang grumbled. She didn't want to admit it, but Raven did do something nice for her, so she couldn't be mad at her for that. "Is there anything you need for us?"

Raven nodded and tried her best not to sound like a jerk. "Unfortunately I'll need a ride back into town. I rode in with your friends. Would either you or your sister be willing to drive me back out into town?"

Yang sighed. "I'll go out, just gotta let Rubes know I'll be out of the house for a bit."

When she got back inside, Yang walked over to Ruby. "I need to go out, so can I borrow your car keys?"

"What do you need to go out for?" Ruby asked while the two were in the kitchen.

"Blake and Sun got a ride over here with Raven," Yang grumbled. "So I need to go give her a ride back into town. Since I needed to go out there anyway, it kinda works out."

"Oh, I need to go out too, so I'll come with," Ruby said.

"Fine, just let everyone know that we'll be out of the house," Yang said as she walked back to the front door. Once she got there, she grabbed her coat and put it on. Blake and Sun had gone up to one of the spare rooms to start putting their belongings away, so it was just Yang and her mother by that point. "Ruby's gonna be joining us, so I hope you don't mind. If you do, oh well."

"That's perfectly fine," Raven replied. "Oh, and since you need to go out and get stuff, I'll take care of it for you."

"Oh really?" Yang asked. "Why don't I believe that?"

Raven turned around and muttered under her breath, hoping that Yang wouldn't hear what she was saying. "Because I've done nothing but let you down." After a moment, she turned back around and smirked at Yang. "Are you really going to question this? I'm willing to pay for whatever it is you're looking to buy today."

"And what if it was alcohol? Would you still get it? Or do you think I shouldn't be doing that kind of stuff?" Yang asked, getting right to the point of what she was going out for.

"I have no right to stop you, or to question what you do," Raven conceded. "And I know that I was doing the same thing when I was your age so I have no room to judge. The least I could do is make sure you get some good alcohol."

By that point in time Ruby had come downstairs and was now amongst them. "Hi, Aunt Raven, long time no see."

"Hello, Ruby," Raven replied. "I see you're still looking healthy as always."

"Yeah, well I still use some of your workout methods when I exercise, so part of this is because of you, so thanks!" Ruby cheerfully replied. "Anyway, should we get going?"

"I'm ready to head out when the two of you are," Raven answered, and she walked down the stairs with the two sisters in tow.

* * *

Blake settled in to one of the guest rooms that were available. After getting into more comfortable clothing, Sun went over to go take a shower, while Blake pulled out a book to read in the peace and quiet.

It wasn't long before someone knocked on the door and came in. Blake looked up to see a familiar head of white hair looking in at her. "Hey, didn't realize you were around," Blake said as she stood up to hug Weiss. As she did though, she felt shaking. Weiss seemed to be trembling over something, and that surprised Blake immensely. "Whoa, what's going on, Weiss? Is everything ok?"

Weiss looked like she was crying over something, though what it was, Blake had no idea. Given that the two sisters had left about 10 minutes ago, Blake could assume that she had started recently.

"I need to talk to you," Weiss said as she lead Blake out of the room and upstairs to a different part of the house.

* * *

 **AN: And here we see one of the major differences in this story compared to the old. Back when I wrote this entire new years arc was about 2 months after the end of volume one. Since then, we've had so many characters introduced that to not include a few of them would be blasphemous.**

 **Thus we get to see the introduction of Raven into the story. Plus we get to see more Taiyang, and Zwei is hanging around the house somewhere right now, so don't fret.**

 **Thank you guys all so much for coming to this story, whether it's for the first time, or if you're reading this after having already read the original. Thank all of you.**

 **See you next chapter!**


	19. Opening Up

"Wait, where are you going?" Weiss asked, hearing her roommate tell her that she was heading out for a bit with Yang and someone Ruby wouldn't mention.

"I have to go drive Yang and the person who guided Blake and Sun over here, after that we're going out to get a few last minute things that Yang forgot to get for the party. Needless to say, she completely overlooked that and so we gotta do it now," Ruby replied.

"Well, I'll go with you," Weiss declared, standing up from the bed and walking over to her stuff.

"That's not a good idea," Ruby sheepishly mentioned.

"Oh really?" Why is that?" Weiss asked.

"Look, just trust me on this," Ruby explained. "Yang's already going to be in a pretty foul mood, I really don't want to expose you to this. So just stay here, and I'll be back later."

Ruby walked out of the room before Weiss could object to anything. It took a few seconds for everything to settle in for the white haired woman, but once she realized that she was alone, she finally had time to process everything that had happened within the past few days.

All of the emotions that she tried to keep bottled up started to come up to the surface and she broke out into tears. She had no idea what to make of any of this, her emotions, how she believed Ruby felt for her, the fact that the two of them were mere seconds away from kissing each other. Weiss couldn't contain it any longer, especially now that Ruby was no longer there to keep her company.

It felt like a punch to the gut, having Ruby tell her that she was going to be alone for a little while. Even though it seemed like Ruby had her reasons, Weiss still felt a bit hurt by being left here alone.

In that moment, Weiss realized that she needed to get all of this off of her chest. If Ruby came back and saw her in that state, things would go badly, at least in Weiss' mind they would. She still had tears in her eyes as she walked about the house, looking for someone to talk to.

Weiss walked by Sun, though she didn't pay much attention to him, even when he called out to him. Since he was going to get into the shower, she was grateful to not have noticed his current dress. She walked over to a guest room and noticed that Blake was sitting inside, reading a book.

Blake looked up to see a familiar head of white hair looking in at her. "Hey, didn't realize you were around," Blake said as she stood up to hug Weiss. As she did though, she felt shaking. Weiss seemed to be trembling over something, and that surprised Blake immensely. "Whoa, what's going on, Weiss? Is everything ok?"

Weiss was glad that Blake was taking this seriously, it would make the next conversation that much easier.

"I need to talk to you," Weiss said as she lead Blake out of the room and upstairs to a different part of the house.

The pair walked up into Ruby's room, before going out onto the little balcony that was connected to the younger girls room. It was covered by a roof, and had screens to keep things inside of it clean of the elements. Ruby decided to have a swing couch hanging up inside of it so that there could be some relaxation.

Once they walked in, Weiss took a seat and Blake followed suit.

"So, what's going o-" Blake asked, though she was cut off by Weiss before she could fully ask her question.

"Can you promise to keep this a secret?"

"Um, what?" Blake questioned.

"I need you to keep this a secret, that means you don't tell Yang, you don't tell Sun, you don't even tell Ruby," Weiss elaborated. "This is deeply personal and I still need to figure things out for myself. So please, I need you to promise that this will stay between the two of us."

Blake nodded and let out a long held breath. "I promise, this stays between the two of us."

"I don't know why, but I am just scared right now," Weiss started to explain. "When Ruby drove up to my home a few days ago, I was freaking out about making sure everything was spotless. I don't know why I just felt like it wasn't perfect enough for her. Then my mother said some things, and my little brother was being a pest, and I was stressing out over this, and-"

Blake grabbed Weiss by the arms and stopped Weiss from talking. "Weiss, you're rambling."

Weiss looked away bashfully. "Sorry."

"Now, what is this all about?" Blake asked, hoping to get to the point. "Why were you freaking out over this?"

"...I...think that...I'm uh...attracted to Ruby." There was a long silence between the two of them. Blake was trying to figure out what was just said to her, while Weiss was silently trying to calm herself down.

"Wait, really?" Blake inquired, still trying to process what was just said.

"Y-yeah," Weiss went on to say.

"That's great Weiss. I can see you and Ruby being adorable together." Blake said after another pause.

"What?" Weiss questioned.

"I think you should try it," Blake replied. Knowing how Ruby felt about Weiss, Blake decided to do a little bit of match-making.

And there lay another problem Weiss was facing. "That's the thing, I'm not sure if I'm going to say something to her or not."

Now it was Blake's turn to once again question everything. "Why not? You need to tell her about this."

"I'm afraid to say something!" Weiss shouted.

Blake paused, taken back by how vehement Weiss got in her response. Weiss, went back to crying, her emotions getting the better of her. Blake decided to rub Weiss' back, soothing the white haired girl in an attempt to calm her down once again.

"Ruby and I almost kissed each other while we were at my house," Weiss finally said after a few moments.

Blake was about to open up her mouth, but she was stopped by what she had just heard come from Weiss. The black haired girl took a deep breath and tried to regain her own composure.

"Weiss?"

"Yes, Blake?" Weiss asked meekly.

Blake got up from off the swing, and knelt down in front of Weiss. She placed both her hands on Weiss' shoulders and started to shake her as she spoke.

"You are not making any sense right now. You have been rambling, you're going nuts, and for fucks sake, you are making it hard for me to understand what is going on right now," Blake sternly said. "So please, do me a favor. Take a deep breath, regain your composure, and start over. Explain everything to me as clearly as possible. Otherwise, we will be at this forever, and I'm sure you don't want that."

Weiss sighed and lowered her head. "Sorry."

"I get that you're freaking out about this, but please, just calm down and try to understand that I want to help you," Blake continued.

"Ok, so while we were still in school, I would get these… weird feelings… while I spent more and more time with Ruby," Weiss began to explain, doing her best to be as coherent as possible.

"Weird how?" Blake asked, prompting a much easier back and forth.

"I think it would be easiest to say that I wanted to continue spending more time with her, get closer to her," Weiss went on. "When she got that concussion last month, I was freaking out and was incredibly worried about her, much more than I feel anyone normally would. When she got drunk that one time and brought someone back to the room to… you know…"

"To sleep with them… " Blake answered for her friend.

"Yes, um… that," Weiss said, looking away from her friend. "Seeing her in that way, I felt hurt, I felt like I was upset. I was… I don't know, maybe the back of my mind wished that was me in that position."

"Well, you're right in what you said earlier," Blake commented. "You're definitely at the bare minimum attracted to her."

"Well, at least I can take comfort in that… as much as I can all things considered," Weiss agreed.

"Now, you said something about you and Ruby nearly kissing?" Blake asked, hoping to get a reasoning on that.

Taking a deep breath, Weiss continues. "We were spending some time in a hot tub at my home, and while we were in there she starts tickling me. One thing lead to another and the next thing I know, the two of us are close to each other, me on top of Ruby and my lips near hers. We started to move closer, but then my mother walked in and I got frightened."

"Ah," Blake said, having taken a seat next to Weiss once more. "Now, you said you didn't know if you wanted to speak with Ruby about your feelings. Any reason why?"

"W-well, I'm afraid she doesn't like me," Weiss explained. "What if she doesn't think of me the same way I do, or what if she doesn't want to be friends with me if I tell her?"

Given what Blake knew, she could only shake her head. "Why would Ruby not be your friend? You two have grown so close in the past few months, I honestly doubt that something like this would drive you two apart. You need to tell her Weiss."

"I don't think I'm ready to tell her right now," Weiss responded.

"Well then, why don't you tell her after this party is over, when everything has calmed down and the two of you have a chance to just relax with just the two of you?" Blake asked.

"I suppose you're right," Weiss sighed. Blake was right, she needed to do this eventually, and this would give her a bit of time to mentally prepare.

As soon as they came to this conclusion, the front door opened up, and a voice called out to them.

"I hate to interrupt anything going on here, but I just want everyone to know that I, Jaune Arc, have entered the building."

Blake silently let Weiss know she was going to check it out. As she walked out, she saw Sun walking over to the front to let Jaune know where everyone was. She smiled, happy that Sun was going to end up keeping Jaune out of their hair for a little bit longer.

"What's going on?" Weiss asked.

"Jaune just got here," Blake explained. "I think the boys will start asking questions if at least one of us doesn't go down to say hello."

"You go on ahead," Weiss said. "I'm feeling better, but I just need some time to make it look like I wasn't bawling my eyes out just now."

"Alright," Blake smiled. "If you need anything, you know where I'll be."

Once Blake walked out of the room, Weiss looked out and saw that it was starting to snow once more. "Maybe this will work out after all."

* * *

 **AN: So most of this was written out a few hours ago, and for the longest time I have had trouble writing things in general. Fortunately I got this done and I think it conveyed what it needed to, so next chapter we'll see how this little party gets started.**

 **Thank you to everyone who has been following this story for the longest time, I couldn't have been doing this without the support you guys all show to me every time I publish a new chapter.**

 **Wasn't able to go to RTX this past weekend, since I was at a wedding and my wife was the Matron of Honor, but from what my friends tell me, there's some interesting things coming up on the horizon for RWBY, and I am curious to see how it turns out.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you next time.**


	20. Party Time

Pulling into the driveway of their home, Ruby and Yang were chatting about the party for that evening. As they got out of the car, they grabbed bags full of snacks for everyone to consume. Yang had bottles of liquor in her hands, courtesy of her mother, and she had a plan in mind for what to do with them.

"Yang, how many times to I have to tell you, alcohol and parties is just asking for something to happen?" Ruby questioned. Her experiences with alcohol haven't exactly been the greatest, the last thing she wanted was to have another bad experience, in front of all her friends.

"Oh quit being a baby," Yang replied as she walked up to the door. "A little alcohol makes things that much more fun."

Opening up the door, Ruby went over to counter. "Need I make a list of all the things that have happened to me when alcohol is involved?"

"You know what, I'll humor you," Yang replied as the sisters walked into the kitchen. She turned to Sun, Blake and Jaune who were hanging out in the living room watching tv. "Sup guys, sorry we had to bail on you like that."

Blake waved her hand towards Yang, dismissing the notion that she needed to apologize for anything. "It's all good, you had a reason for going out, and it actually gave us a chance to catch up with Jaune."

"Yeah, got here about half an hour ago and I've just been chatting with everyone," the aforementioned blonde replied.

"Good to know," Yang mentioned before turning back to Ruby. "So, where's this list of yours?"

"That time I first found out I was a lesbian," Ruby started off with.

"Oh you know you're grateful for that and you know it," Yang countered.

"That time at that party you dragged me over to," Ruby continued.

"Hey, you could've said no, and Flynt wouldn't have been upset," Yang rebuked.

"That one easter where I accidentally drank some of Uncle Qrow's stash," the redhead stated.

"Man that was a funny easter egg hunt," the blonde commented. "I'm pretty sure Jaune is still scarred for life from when you threw up on him."

"No, but I did have to throw away a brand new hoodie because of that," the blonde boy interjected.

"Any time it involved a certain you know who," the younger sister deadpanned.

Just the thought of that girl gave Yang pause. She had been mixing alcohol and fruit punch together to make a nice drink that everyone would enjoy. Hearing her sister talk about the one person who brought a lot of trouble to their family, Yang stood statue and completely forgot that she was pouring vodka into the punch bowl mix.

After a few seconds, Ruby physically moved Yang's arm so that it wasn't pouring too much more into the mix, though the smaller girl figured that the mix was heavily spiked now because of it. "You might want to add in extra punch," Ruby commented.

That snapped the blonde out of her stupor. "Right, sorry I made you remember that," Yang apologized.

"No worries, just don't be surprised if I don't have too much of the punch," the younger sister mentioned.

"Ruby, we're in the company of friends, and I'm sure that they will help you make sure that you are going to be alright," Yang noted as she put the vodka away and started to pour punch into the bowl. "Just have a bit of fun, it's not like you're gonna have anyone here judge you."

"If you want me to be sober for the party, I'll be happy to do so," Blake chimed in as she walked into the kitchen and put an arm around Ruby's shoulders. "I've been the designated sober person plenty of times before back home. I remember this one time my friend Ilia decided that she was going to try and 'swim in the snow'."

"Oh, and how did that turn out?" Yang asked.

Sun piped up from his seat on the couch. "It doesn't snow where Blake and I live."

Ruby could only blink, trying to comprehend what she just heard. "Ok, well that's a thing."

"Yeah, I got her to stay inside and as soon as I did, she ran over to the bathroom to throw up," Blake continued. "Stayed with her for a little bit while she did that, held her hair, you know, the usual stuff."

"See, Ruby," Yang jumped in. "Let loose and have fun, Blake will take care of us all tonight."

"I will try my best," the black haired girl agreed.

"Alright then, I guess I'll have a bit of fun," Ruby said after putting different chips and snacks into bowls that could be placed out for later.

Right at that moment, everyone heard the front door open. "Hey, I'm back!"

Ruby went to go over to the front, having heard her dad call out to everyone. "Hey, dad, need any help with anything?"

"No I got it all," Taiyang replied, holding about 20 bags of groceries in his hands. "Just make some room for me in the kitchen, would you?"

"Sure thing," the youngest daughter answered, walking into the kitchen and clearing off a space for her dad to place the groceries. "Sheesh, you went all out again, dad."

"Well, I heard that you and Yang went out with Raven to get some things, but I figured the more the merrier. So, everything that's here is for you guys, and so that you can have some breakfast in the morning," the sister's father replied. "I'll be out of your way shortly, gonna go meet up with your Uncle to go and keep him company, and help make sure that he doesn't get too frustrated that his sister is going to be there as well."

Yang just grumbled and shook her head at the mention of her mother. She elected to keep quiet for the sake of keeping the peace that was resting in the house right now.

Another knock on the door jolted her back to reality. "I'll get it," Yang replied, not realizing the door was already being opened.

"What up bitches?!"

Everyone heard Nora cry out as she swung the door open and shouted to all that were inside. As she walked in, she saw Taiyang and immediately got red with embarrassment. "Oh, sorry, Mr. Xiao Long, I… er… that's to say that you aren't… I'm just gonna shut up now."

Taiyang could only chuckle as she continued to put away the groceries. "Hello to you too, Nora."

Behind Nora stood Ren and Pyrrha, who were watching on, a horrified look on Pyrrha's face, and a deadpanned look on Ren's. Taiyang, noticing the newcomer, walked over to say hello. "Taiyang Xiao Long, I'm Ruby and Yang's father."

"Pyrrha Nikos," the redheaded woman said as she shook Taiyang's hand. "I'm really grateful to being friends with your daughters. They are truly wonderful people."

"I mean I raised them well, but trust me, I know they ain't saints," Taiyang quipped. "They can be respectful and also fun at the same time."

"Dad!" Both of the girls exclaimed at the same time.

"Love you both!" Their father replied. "Anyway, I'm gonna be getting out of your way now. Hope you kids all have a great time!"

"Thanks, Dad!" Ruby called out. "Tell Uncle Qrow we said hi, and Happy New Year!"

"I'll be sure to pass along the message," Taiyang replied as he grabbed his coat and walked out of the house.

"Your father seems nice," Pyrrha said once he was gone.

"Yeah, he did a good job with us," Ruby agreed. "Especially having to do it all on his own for a long time."

"Anyway, we're not here to do sad talk, we're here for fun," Yang cut in before that conversation could go any further. She knew very well what could happen if people started asking about Ruby's mother. "Speaking of fun, where's our resident grouch?"

"You mean Weiss?" Ren asked.

"Who else would I be talking about?" Yang retorted, bringing the snacks out to the table so that they could be grabbed whenever someone wanted them. Afterwards, she started gathering different ingredients to make dinner for the party. "Has anyone seen her?"

"I'll go get her," Blake replied, standing up and walking away before anyone could argue. Unfortunately, Ruby ended up following her upstairs to her room. "Ruby, I did volunteer to go get her, why don't you go back and hang with the others?"

"Well, maybe I wanna see how she's doing?" Ruby replied. "If she's up here all by herself, I would like to see if she's alright?"

Blake couldn't argue with Ruby, she knew full well that if that happened, the younger girl would instantly know that something was up. "Alright, just be aware we did have a kind of serious talk earlier. So if she doesn't want to talk about it let her be."

"Is everything ok?" Ruby asked as they were halfway up the stairs. She grabbed Blake's arm and held her still so that she could get her answers.

Blake sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She really didn't want to get caught up in the middle of everything, like she was being pulled into doing now. "It's not my place to say, and like I said, she may not want to talk about it. So please just let it be if you can."

After a brief moment, Ruby let go of Blake's arm and they continued up the stairs to the redheads room.

Blake gingerly opened the door, and she saw Weiss gathering some things from inside the room. "Hey, Ice Queen," Blake whispered into the room to get Weiss' attention.

"GAH!" Weiss blurted out, surprised by the sudden visitors. "Oh, hey, I was just about to come downstairs."

"Well, we were just coming up to check on you," Ruby said as she poked her head into the door. "By the way, I'm sorry for bailing on you earlier. Had to go out with Yang earlier."

"And her mother," Blake commented. That response got a glare from Ruby, who silently told her to not bring that up again. "Sorry, didn't realize it was a sore subject in this house."

Ruby nodded. "Just try not to bring it up around Yang at least."

"I promise," the black haired girl agreed.

"Anyway, shall we get going?" Weiss questioned as she started to walk out the room. Blake took that as her queue to walk back downstairs, but Ruby stopped and held Weiss back for a moment.

"You ok?" Ruby asked sincerely.

Weiss figured Ruby had heard about the fact that she spoke with Blake. She at least hoped Blake was careful enough to keep the specifics of their conversation on the down low. "I'm better, had a chat with Blake and took some time to just be by myself and relax before everyone got here."

"If you wanna talk with me about it-"

"Thank you," Weiss responded, knowing fully well what Ruby meant by that. "Right now I want to enjoy myself with my friends, so let's get going.

"Yeah, let's go enjoy the night!" Ruby replied as the two walked down the stairs to rejoin their friends.

* * *

 **AN: So a little fun fact for you guys, as of the time that I am posting this (it's 12:01 AM on 8/24/2018), it was 6 years ago to the day that I asked my wife to go out with me for the first time. I couldn't have gotten anywhere without her, and I'm really glad that I was able to find the one person who matters to me more than anyone else. I love you more than anything hun, and even though you won't read this I just wanted to say it to you.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope to see you next time!**


	21. Afterparty pt 1

**Wednesday January 1st**

Ruby could only groan in suffering as she felt her consciousness return once more. Where the night had gone, she didn't know. However, she was certainly feeling it now.

Never before has Ruby's head hurt so much, the hangover making her feel like garbage. She woke up feeling her head pounding like a drum. Moving caused her to groan even further, and her head to pound even more. Her pillow was the only thing that kept her sane at the moment.

Looking over at the clock, it wasn't even 11 yet, but only 10:47. Of all the times for Ruby to feel like this, it had to be on New Years Day, when she had everyone of her and Yang's friends over. What she didn't realize was that it was her own fault, it just wasn't known to the redhead yet.

"Note to self, never drink again," Ruby grumbled as she flipped over in her bed. Laying where she was, it was one of the most comfortable feelings in the world, one that Ruby would love for eternity.

After a few more minutes, Ruby started to sit up. As she let the blanket fall off of her, she felt as though everything got much colder than she anticipated. Looking down at herself, she realized that she was completely naked, her bedsheets the only thing covering her. Immediately, Ruby covered her bare chest and looked around as quickly as her hangover would let her. With no one else in the room, she felt better about being naked in her room. Checking the lower half of her body, she realized that she was in fact fully nude.

"Oh please don't tell me something happened last night," Ruby groaned to herself as she tried to start standing up from out of her bed.

When Ruby braced her hand on the bed itself, she felt something strange in her hands. Looking down at what was now scrunched up in her hand, she saw a pair of panties that most certainly didn't belong to her whatsoever.

"Oh god dammit, this can't be happening again," Ruby muttered as she put the panties down, followed by throwing a shirt and some shorts on. She didn't even bothering with underwear. Once she was clothed, the young girl walked out into the hallway, and looked over the railing.

There she saw her sister Yang on the couch, still asleep from what Ruby could guess was a drunken stupor.

Ruby walked downstairs and went to wake up Yang. Every movement was like stepping on a bed of coals, except the pain was all in her head. When she got over to Yang, she shook her till the blonde got up.

"Ugh, I swear, I don't know why I do this, but I'm probably gonna do this again knowing me." Yang had a very astute observation of herself.

"Yang, did something happen with me last night?"

Yang looked up, as best she could, at Ruby and suddenly sat there shocked. "Ruby, have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?"

Ruby seemed confused for a second. "No why?" Yang just stood up gingerly, and walked Ruby over to the bathroom. When she got in, the younger sister, saw what her older sister was talking about. "What the heck happened last night?" Ruby was sporting a very ripe black eye, and only when she saw it did it start to hurt her. "Ow ow ow ow ow." Ruby mumbled to herself.

"Well, shit definitely went down last night." Yang mentioned, sounding much better already, despite the hangover. Ruby always wondered how her sister managed to keep herself out of having a hangover for too long. Times like these, she was jealous of her talents.

"Yeah, no kidding." Ruby slowly walked out of the bathroom, followed by Yang walking behind her up to her room. "Plus I found this on my bed earlier."

Yang looked at what Ruby was gesturing too, only to be even more shocked. "Oh my..." Yang didn't even get to finish her thought when she ran back to the bathroom to throw up. Right around this time, Nora popped up from the basement. She and Ren spent the night down in the spare room there, and so she woke up feeling much like Yang.

"Morning Ruby, looks like Yang couldn't handle the aftermath huh." Ruby just looked at Nora, how she managed to stay this perky in a time like this was a mystery no one could solve, not even Ren.

Ruby thought of something, but she was afraid to say it. She didn't have to though, as Nora walked into Ruby's room, almost immediately noticing the panties. "Um, Ruby, why is there..." Nora didn't even finish before Ruby walked back in.

' _Please don't tell me they're yours, I'll die,_ ' Ruby thought to herself. "They were there when I woke up this morning. As was this black eye."

Nora then noticed Ruby's face. "Oh shit, I didn't even see that before now."

"Yeah and I don't even remember getting drunk," Ruby explained.

Nora slowly sat down on the bed and looked up to the youngest girl. "Well then, let me explain what started it all for you.

* * *

 **The night before**

 **9:45 p.m.**

Yang had decided it was time to drink. As fun as it was just hanging around and chatting with people, there was only so much a party could take before things went down like crazy. So she brought out the bottles of alcohol that her mother bought. Since Blake was the one there who was designated as the sober one, she planned on making sure everyone else had a good time. The blonde did notice that a certain pair of ladies were doing everything in their power to avoid drinking, so Yang decided to be more direct.

"Hey guys, I got a question for everyone," Yang called out, getting her friends attention. "Who do you think would win in a drinking contest, Weiss or Ruby?"

Ruby could already tell where this was going. "Doesn't matter Yang, I'd rather not be drinking tonight."

"Oh relax Ruby, Blake's being the sober one tonight, you and Weiss are gonna go shot for shot now." Yang insisted. "I'm pretty sure everyone here is hyped for this now. Let's see who's the better drunk!"

With the crowd that was gathering around them, Ruby and Weiss reluctantly drank a few shots together. Ruby was no stranger to alcohol, having been on the bad end on more than one occasion. Weiss however, she had barely touched alcohol in her life. The first shot alone for Weiss was a challenge. However, once Ruby pointed out how Weiss wasn't looking so hot because of that, the white haired girl took that as a challenge, and continued on with the game. In the end, Weiss decided to drop early, so that she could still somewhat think, but for Ruby, the damage had been done. She was drunk enough that you could put anything into her hand and she would drink it.

* * *

 **Present time**

"Yang I'm going to kill you ya know that?" Ruby pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "Look, so we know how I got into that state in the first place, now let's just figure out who gave me the black eye, and who's panties these are." Ruby then gave in and asked the question that was on her mind. "Er, Nora...those aren't yours right?"

Nora looked at Ruby, thought to herself for a second, then pulled the waist of her shorts out so she could take a look down there. Not even a second after pulling them away, she immediately let them shoot back into place. "Well, I can honestly say, those are not mine, however..." She paused for a second. "...mine are missing. I need to find them." Nora walked out of Ruby's room, leaving Ruby cringing. Once Yang got back into Ruby's room, Ruby decided it was her turn to throw up.

After Ruby got out of the bathroom, she remembered that Blake was the sober one out of them. So she went to go find her. It wasn't that hard to find her, she was in the kitchen with Sun starting up breakfast for everyone. "Hey, looks like I started breakfast just in time. Does your eye still hurt?"

Ruby was liking where this was going. "So you know what happened to me?"

Blake put the spatula down for a second, and walked Ruby over to Yang's room, just as the blonde was about to enter. "You are gonna have to talk to Jaune and Pyrrha about that."

Ruby seemed confused for a second. "Wait, why?" Blake remained silent however, opening the door to Yang's room. They found the pair in Yang's bed, naked only covered by the sheets.

"On my bed, really?" Yang was not happy at the site.

"Relax Yang, you can wash them later today." Blake said.

"Oh and by the way Ruby, you should put some ice on that eye soon." Ruby could only nod back to her.

Yang angrily stomped into her room, took a pillow of hers, and started to beat Jaune with it. Somehow Pyrrha managed to stay asleep through Jaune's beating, but they figured it wouldn't last long. Jaune however, was completely shocked and startled by the recent chain of events.

"Jaune, I swear to god if there's any sort of stains on these sheets, you're ass is getting cut off. Now put some shorts on and get out here, you got some explaining to do." Jaune, not wanting to deal with an angry Yang, was quick to follow orders. Once he got out to the living room, he looked at Ruby and stood there frozen in fear.

"So you know something about what happened to her eye last night?" Jaune nervously nodded his head. "I swear Jaune, if you punched my little sister-"

Jaune threw his hands up in front of his face to protect himself. "Wait wait wait wait wait. I wasn't the one who did it, but I know who did." Yang and Ruby were listening carefully.

* * *

 **11:26 p.m.**

Ruby was walking over to Jaune in a completely drunken state. After she finished her contest with Weiss, Ruby just kept going. The younger girl had so much, she was wobbling all over the place. Jaune was talking to Pyrrha, who was also in a drunken state thanks to some of Yang's shenanigans, and things seemed to be great. "Hey, what are you to, hic, talking about?"

Pyrrha seemed to laugh at Ruby for a second. "I was hearing a joke he told me that was hilarious." Ruby and Pyrrha both started to laugh.

"Yeah, he has told me plenty of jokes when we dated." Pyrrha laughed less and less, coming to the point where she wasn't laughing anymore. "Hey hey Jaune, tell her the one you told me after our one year anniversary. Go on, tell it Jaune, tell-" Pyrrha's fist hit hard against Ruby's eye, causing her to stumble back and fall flat on the floor. Jaune quickly grabbed Pyrrha and threw her over his shoulder, carrying her away from Ruby, who still didn't realized what had happened.

* * *

 **Present time**

Ruby just stood there in disbelief. Her friend had been the cause of her black eye, all because she talked about her previous relationship to Jaune. That just wasn't right in Ruby's eyes. She started getting a little bit upset over that now, and it showed on her face.

Jaune had learned that when Ruby gets really upset, like she was getting now, it was one of the worst experiences in the world. "Oh no, Ruby calm down, I'm sure she didn't mean for that to happen. Remember both of you were really drunk at the time, talk it out with her and I'm sure she'll apologize."

Ruby looked over at Jaune. "She gave me a black eye, just because I was talking about how you and I were in a relationship before college. Why would she do that? I didn't do anything wrong, I don't feel like I deserved that."

Both Yang and Jaune were doing their best to comfort the young girl. "Hey come on Ruby, do you really think that she would do something like that in the first place? As much as I hate to admit it, it's like Jaune said, you both were really drunk."

Now Ruby was getting mad at Yang for helping Jaune. "That doesn't make me feel any better."

Jaune stood in between Ruby and the doorway to Pyrrha, hoping to get her attention. "Ruby what can we do to help you feel better?"

Ruby looked at him. "I feel like I should get an apology at some point before everyone leaves."

Suddenly the door behind Jaune opened up, and out came Pyrrha. "Ugh, morning all." Suddenly she saw the black eye Ruby had and became concerned for Ruby. "Ruby, what happened to you? Are you ok?"

Ruby turned away from Pyrrha, visibly upset by what she found out. Yang walked over and stood right in front of the tall redhead. "You owe Ruby an apology."

"I'm sure this is the alcohol's fault, but I don't remember what I did," Pyrrha explained. "What happened?"

Jaune grabbed hold of her and walked her to the kitchen, Yang following. "You got really, territorial for a second in your drunken state last night, and gave Ruby that black eye."

Pyrrha suddenly stumbled away from them and over to Ruby. "I am so sorry for what I did," Pyrrha pleaded. "Is there anything I can do to earn your forgiveness?"

Hearing Pyrrha's apology, Ruby smiled and hugged her friend. "Apology accepted, but you can make it up to me by helping Blake make breakfast for everyone."

"Done." Pyrrha agreed, though her hangover wasn't doing much to cooperate.

Ruby felt better after that, she figured it wasn't something her friend would do, but to hear an apology on the matter helped Ruby's mindset tremendously. Suddenly, Ruby remembered she wasn't wearing any underwear herself so she quickly walked up to her room so she could put some on. Yang eventually followed her back up, just as Ruby was done putting her pajama pants back on. "Well, now the only thing left is to find out who these panties belong to." Ruby and Yang thought about it for a minute, not realizing who it truly was.

"Well, I think I'm gonna hit the shower now, if you find out who it is, then let me know ok?" Yang commented, hoping a shower would help clear her mind a little bit.

Ruby just waved Yang away. She was stuck in a cycle of figuring out who owned the damn panties. Ruby flopped down onto her bed, laying back down on it still trying to put the pieces together. "Why can't I figure out who's panties these are?"

"Ruby, those panties are mine."

When Ruby heard someone speak to her, no less someone claiming ownership over the mysterious panties, she looked over to the balcony outside her room. What she saw when she looked over, made her heart stop.

She saw Weiss.

* * *

 **AN: Ahh, I've been waiting for this one for quite some time now. Before you ask, everything will be explained next chapter, however I can say this.**

 **Yes. That did happen.**

 **It was how it originally happened, and so that was one of the things I knew I needed to keep the same.**

 **One thing I did change however, was the reaction between Ruby and Pyrrha. In this, Ruby's much more forgiving than what I had her do in the previous version.**

 **Before I go, please remember, follows, and faves are greatly appreciated, and reviews, much like follows and faves, are not required. However, if you could leave a review that would be spectacular, as it does wonders for helping me make this story even better!**

 **Anyway, hope you guys have enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one!**


	22. Afterparty pt 2

**AN: I apologize for this being a day late, but there's something wanted to share something with you guys. For quite a while now, I've been battling with major depression. I've let it affect me in ways that I can't even imagine. I'm sure most of you would read this and think to yourselves (if anyone ever even reads these notes), 'Oh well there's no reason for him to be going on and telling us about this.' The thing is, it's been affecting my writing, and I that is one of the things that bothers me the most.  
**

 **The good news is, with the therapy I've been doing so far, and me starting on anti-depressants, I am starting to get better. So hopefully, my passion for writing in this fandom does nothing but grown even larger than before. I just wanted to let you guys know about what's going on. Anyway, enough of me rambling, onto what you guys actually came here for.**

* * *

' _Weiss?_ ' Ruby thought to herself. ' _Please, don't tell me what that we ended up doing_ that _of all things!_ '

Ruby couldn't help but pass out when that thought came to mind. Just thinking about the possibilities were too much to bear.

"Oh my god!" Weiss cried out as she leapt over to catch Ruby before the younger girl could hit the ground. As best she could, Weiss gently guided Ruby to lay down on the bed, her face red as she felt her friend in her arms. This was going to be difficult, for both of them.

Seeing that Ruby was alright, Weiss decided to go run over and get some water for her when she woke back up. After running downstairs and getting a glass, she came back up just as Ruby was waking. "Hey, how you feeling?" Weiss felt awkward just asking that question, and it showed in her tone.

Ruby looked up at Weiss, she was still shocked at what had happened just minutes before. "Um, good. Thanks for the water."

The silence that fell upon them was deafening, creeping up on the two of them as they sat there awkwardly on Ruby's bed. Ruby had no idea what happened, and it was upsetting. The thought of the unknown in all this was terrifying.

On the other side though, Weiss did know what happened between them. It was all that she could think about at the moment, those feelings, her experiences, and yet the worry that she screwed things up with her friend. She was afraid to say anything in fear that Ruby would be freaked out more than she already was.

"So, did you hear about what Pyrrha did last night?" Ruby asked, being the first to break the silence between them.

Weiss didn't even look at Ruby, then again Ruby was looking away from her as well when she asked the question. "Is she the one who gave you that black eye?" Ruby laughed, but it was very awkward and only made things worse.

"Yeah, turns out the alcohol, combined with me bringing up some of the old memories I had in the past brought her into some kind of territorial state," Ruby mentioned. "It hurt to have that happen, but I know I'll get over it eventually.

Weiss finally looked at Ruby when she said that. "How are you able to forgive so easily?"

Ruby also ended up finally looking at her counterpart. "I am upset, and I will be letting her know about that. But neither of us will be better if we don't forgive each other, and ourselves."

Weiss looked at Ruby, fully facing her. She was very nervous and her heart was racing. "Ruby, I don't want you getting hurt over small problems, ok?" Ruby looked at Weiss confused.

"Small problems? What are you talking about?" Ruby asked, wondering what Weiss was going on about.

"I mean, a lot happened last night, from what I can see," Weiss looked away from Ruby again, mumbling to herself and hoping Ruby wouldn't notice. "I don't know what is going to happen."

"Weiss, I don't remember anything that happened last night," Ruby pleaded. "Do you know anything at all?"

Weiss looked down at her hands, fidgeting with them and unable to control her emotions. "I do."

* * *

The night before

11:55 p.m.

Weiss was standing on the balcony next to Ruby's room. She seemed to like the view a lot, it gave sort of a calming effect. She figured it would help when if she ever talked to Ruby about her affection for the younger girl. Weiss was feeling pretty tipsy, but she felt functional enough to get by. ' _Me, remind future me to give Yang a piece of my mind. If I'm drunk, I'll be upset and throw up on her._ '

She heard the room door open and saw Ruby stumble into the room. Ruby saw Weiss and immediately went out to her. "Hey, Weiss, whatcha doin?"

Weiss smiled, even while drunk Ruby was still very cute and adorable. "I'm just standing here, enjoying the view."

Ruby grabbed her arm. "You know, there's a seat here right?"

Weiss looked at it, and then sat down beside Ruby. "I guess you're right." Weiss' speech was slurred, though Ruby's was much worse.

"Tonight certainly has been a crazy night huh." Ruby started. Weiss laughed, she wasn't going to argue that point.

"Yeah, crazy is one way to describe it." Ruby shuffled on closer to Weiss, putting the idea of a personal barrier in the trash.

"Have I ever said you're really pretty, Weiss?"

Weiss was a bit startled by that, not expecting such flattery. "No, but that's very kind of you, Ruby. Though I gotta say, I don't know why I'm getting such niceties from you." Ruby just smiled and stared into Weiss' eyes, mesmerizing her in a silver sea.

Ruby and Weiss sat in silence for a few seconds before Ruby said something, as the rest of the house was beginning the countdown to midnight. "Weiss, I can't hold it in any longer. The past few months, I have wanted nothing more than to be with you, and I can't keep this to myself anymore. I want to be more than friends with you." Before Weiss could react, as the clock struck midnight, Ruby pulled Weiss into a passionate kiss. At first Weiss was surprised by it, but then she started to get into it. Eventually, they pulled apart, and Weiss looked shocked, excited, scared, afraid, and many more emotions.

"Ruby, I..." Ruby looked at her and smiled.

"Happy New Year, Weiss."

Weiss didn't know how to respond to all of that. Suddenly, she didn't know what else to do, so when Ruby didn't expect it, Weiss gave her a deep kiss, even more passionate than the one before. Weiss let her body take control and gave in to her desires, allowing her hands to move all along Ruby's body, and causing Ruby to do the same. After a few moments of this, Ruby and Weiss began to undress themselves, and fully dove into their passions for each other.

* * *

Earlier that morning.

10:40

Weiss awoke with a migraine, she never was one to drink, and so this was new to her. She realized that she was in Ruby's room, in her bed. When she looked down, she saw that she was naked, and that Ruby was literally laying right next to her, also naked.

Her eyes widened, she felt scared, like she had just done something she knows that she should regret for the rest of her life. "Oh my god, did we...did we just...what?" Weiss' confusion was well understood, she never thought things would go down like this. Seeing it now, she was glad that at least it was with Ruby.

Noticing that the younger girl laying next to her looked like she was going to wake up soon, she quickly and carefully, got out of the bed, put some quick clothes on, and walked out onto the porch, having to wait only a minute before Ruby woke up. She curled up into a ball on the swing out there, hoping that Ruby wouldn't notice and be freaked out.

* * *

Present time

"Weiss, I had no idea."

Weiss started to feel all of the emotions coming out. "I never thought that this is how it would happen."

Ruby thought of something, something that hurt her inside. "What?"

Weiss started to tear up, not sure of whether to say this to Ruby and put this all on her. "This was my first time. Before this, no relationships, no lovers, I never experienced anything."

Ruby was starting to feel upset, she felt like it was all her fault, and so she started to tear up.

"What's the matter, Ruby?" Weiss swiftly moved to her side, and embraced her in a hug.

"I'm sorry for what happened, Weiss. I'm sorry that I made you do what you did last night and this morning." Ruby was crying so it was hard for Weiss to understand what she was saying, but from what she could tell, Ruby felt like it was all her fault.

"Ruby, this isn't your fault, ok? Don't blame yourself." Ruby pulled herself away from Weiss, grabbing her coat and putting on a clean pair of pants. "Ruby, what are you doing?"

Ruby went over to her desk, and pulled out the letter she wrote for Weiss a few days ago. "I need some time alone ok? I wanted you to read this, cause it will explain everything. I'm sorry for all of this." Ruby, who was still crying, walked out of her room after handing Weiss the letter. Weiss opened it up and began to read it.

Dear Weiss

Over the past few months, I have been hiding something from you. It isn't anything that is dangerous to you, however, I can not hide it anymore. The truth is, I have liked you for a very long time, and I want to be more than just friends or best friends with you. You have become more to me than a friend in my eyes. I know that when you see this, you will probably be really scared of me, or freaked out at my feelings for you, but I want you to know, that this is real to me, and I want you to know how I truly feel. If it means staying friends with you, then I will forget about my feelings, no matter how much I don't want to, and I won't let them get in between our friendship because I would rather be trying to date someone else, if it means that we still stay friends.

All I want right now, is to just tell you the truth, and hope that you feel the same way about me.

Ruby Rose

Weiss continued to cry while she read the letter, not noticing that Ruby's sister Yang was coming to her room after seeing Ruby in the state that she was in. "Weiss, what the hell did you do to my sister?" Once Yang got to the room and saw the same thing that she saw in Ruby coming from Weiss, her instincts told her that something wasn't what it seemed.

Weiss eventually looked up at Yang. "Where did Ruby go?"

Yang looked at her, hoping Weiss wanted to fix things. "She went out for a drive, I don't know when she will be back." Weiss, still teary eyed, stood up, and walked past Yang. She spoke to her as she went by.

"I need to fix this, if not, then I could never forgive myself."

Weiss went down to the front door to see if Ruby's car was still there. Unsurprising to her, it wasn't there. She didn't feel that great about any of this. It felt like there was a part of her that was missing.

Yang came down and saw how she looked, and was wondering what had just happened. "Hey, Weiss, is there something you want to tell us?" Weiss didn't know what to say to Yang, she wanted to talk to Ruby about it first.

"I..." Weiss took a moment to gather her thoughts before saying anything else to the blonde wonder. "I have to talk to Ruby about it before I say anything else." Weiss went back up to Ruby's room to wait for the dark haired girl to arrive.

On the way up, she saw Blake, who happened to know about her feelings for Ruby, and maybe, just maybe she knew about how Ruby felt as well. Weiss stopped as soon as she saw Blake.

"Morning, Weiss. You feeling alright, no nausea or anything like that?" She said when Blake noticed that Weiss was standing there. Weiss couldn't help but notice that Blake seemed to have a smug, knowing look on her face.

Weiss grabbed her arm and dragged Blake into Ruby's room. "You got some explaining to do, Blake." Blake yelped when Weiss first pulled her arm, not expecting that to happen.

Once they were in the room, Weiss shut the door behind her, not even looking over at Blake. "Did you know about this?" Blake had no idea what Weiss was talking about at first.

"Know about what?" Blake figured she would ride this out, see what happened next.

The white haired girl turned to Blake, emotion taking over. "What happened between me and Ruby last night, that's what." Weiss was becoming irritated. Her motions were raw, she had only so much that she could take any more.

Blake nodded as she looked over to Weiss. "I, saw you two out on that balcony before midnight, after that I don't know anything about what had happened between you too." Weiss just looked up at the ceiling, her mind was racing all over the place.

"Didn't I tell you that you two would be adorable together?" That was all Weiss needed to realize that Blake knew even more than that. Weiss looked at Blake, ready to pry every piece of information out of her that she could.

"You knew."

Blake looked at her confused. "Come again?"

"You knew all along."

Weiss kept saying the same thing over and over again, and it kept confusing Blake. "Knew what?" Weiss grabbed the letter Ruby gave to her off of the desk and forced it into Blake's hands.

"You knew exactly how Ruby felt for me and you didn't say anything!" At this point Weiss was shouting, she was so mad at her friend for keeping this from her, from putting her into a position that could've jeopardized one of her closest friendships.

Blake took a moment to calm down. "Yes, I did know about how Ruby felt for you."

Weiss just shook her head. "Then why didn't you tell me about it when you had the chance to yesterday? I thought you were there to help me."

Blake didn't hesitate. "Because she asked me to keep it a secret, much like you asked me to keep your feelings a secret as well." Weiss was about to say something, then realized that anything she said would have made things worse. Blake was right in that and so she couldn't find a way to argue it. "I didn't tell Ruby how you felt for her, so when she did that, she was walking in blind like you were."

Weiss decided to sit down on the bed with Blake. "Man, this is all my fault. Now Ruby is gone, and I feel terrible about it."

Blake rubbed her back. "You know that Ruby will come back soon. She just needs a moment to calm down, and wouldn't it be nice if she came home and you were still here?"

Weiss smiled a bit, but still wasn't happy with herself. "Blake, I've never been in a relationship before, never experienced any of this. Ruby shouldn't have to put up with someone who has no clue what to do."

Blake knelt down right in front of Weiss. "I don't think she would mind that. As long as you tell her you need time to adjust to being in a relationship then she should understand. But you need to tell her." Weiss looked down at her knees. "If you don't tell her, or if you are not here when she gets back, she's going to assume that the two of you are no longer friends." That made Weiss shoot her head up and give her a very sad stare. "Do you really want that, Weiss?" Weiss calmly shook her head.

Blake got up off of the ground and stood up. "You can wait in here until she get's back." Blake then heard the front door opening, and Ruby talking to Yang at the door. "Which shouldn't be long, so you need to think of something." Weiss was taken back by all of that, and tried to think of something quick to do, only thinking of one thing.

Ruby and Yang opened the door to her room. "I doubt that Weiss would be..." Ruby saw that Weiss was still there, staring at her from her bed. Weiss got up and walked towards her. "Weiss, I..."

Weiss decided to cut Ruby off with a deep kiss that made everyone in the room surprised.

"Oh wow, that's a thing." Yang stated, extremely shocked by the ordeal.

Blake was the first to regain her sense, and she dragged Yang out of the room. "Let's give these two time to talk."

Once Yang and Blake were gone, Weiss slowly parted her lips from Ruby's. Then she walked Ruby over to her bed, holding her hand in the process, and sat down with her to explain herself. "Ruby, I..." Weiss tried to keep herself calm, but she felt like she wasn't going to be able to keep the tears in for long. "I'm sorry that I caused this. I need to tell you something." Ruby looked at Weiss, paying attention to her only, and ignoring everything else around her. "The truth is, I do like you too."

Ruby started to look like she was in a candy shop, but Weiss wasn't done. "Before you get excited however, I need to tell you something that I'm afraid of."

Ruby seemed to lose some of that hope that she just had. "What is it?"

"Ruby, I've never even been in a relationship before. I don't know what to expect from it, and frankly, there is a part of me that is still confused about all of this. I want to be in a relationship with you, but for me, this isn't easy. I'm afraid that I would screw up something along the way. Do you understand?"

Ruby nodded, then looked down at her hands in her lap. "Weiss, I meant what I said earlier. I have feelings for you, I care for you, and that will never change. No relationship is ever perfect and it'll be hard for both of us. But, if you're willing to work for it, then I am too."

Weiss couldn't help but smile as she heard that declaration from her friend. "I would like that," She said softly as she placed her hands on Ruby's. Still something felt off about Ruby. So, Weiss put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Ruby looked at her and teared up. "It's just..." Ruby tried her hardest to remain calm while she explained herself. "I feel bad over what happened last night." Ruby looked away from Weiss, who just sat there, quiet and confused. "I took advantage of you last night and forced you into something you weren't ready for. Took away something you'll never have back"

Weiss put her hand up, telling Ruby to stop talking. "Ruby Rose, do you realize that right before things got, sexy, that I was the one who kissed you? You may have had the first kiss, but I kissed you back and basically kicked it all off. Don't try to blame yourself for that Ruby, because I don't blame you for it." Ruby, stunned at what Weiss had just said, just nodded.

"Ok, well maybe we should go back downstairs. I'm sure that everyone is wondering where we are." Weiss stood up, grabbing Ruby's hand and pulling her up with it. Right before they walked out of the room, Weiss gave Ruby a tender kiss. It caused Ruby's cheeks to redden, and her to smile when they parted. "I'm really happy to have such a wonderful girlfriend." Weiss stared Ruby in the eyes. "Wow, that's gonna take some getting used to."

Ruby closed her eyes, laughing at what Weiss had just said. She took a deep breath, and then opened them up to Weiss, feeling better about the whole ordeal. "Thank you, Weiss. I couldn't be any happier than I am right now." After that, the two friends went downstairs to rejoin their friends.

* * *

 **AN: Well, that was definitely different than the original version. Originally they didn't hook up at this point, and it happened a couple of weeks later. Going forward with the next arc, I'm gonna try and incorporate something new before we get back into stuff that has already been covered before.**

 **Anyway, I know that I haven't been replying to too many of you guys when you leave your reviews. For that I'm sorry. I can only hope that with the recent changes I'm working towards in my life, that I'll start to get better at replying to those. So please, leave a review for me, I'd greatly appreciate it.**

 **Thank you guys so much, you have no idea how awesome it is when you guys show your support for this. I am truly grateful to you.**


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